2019: Humanities Install for David Opdyke

First, some links to David's work and conversations & articles.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/look-101-seeing-art-in-an-instagram-world-david-opdyke-tickets-54409645715
https://events.umich.edu/event/59598
http://davidopdyke.com/
https://www.artsillustrated.com/david-opdyke-artist-this-land/

David does really interesting work.  He mostly starts with old US postcards, and then creates a wall mural where he repaints many of them, or uses them as bits and pieces for animations.  But he also uses multiple photographs to create made-up - but highly believable - futurescapes of industrial degradation.

About David Opdyke:

David Opdyke is a draughtsman, sculptor, and animator known for his trenchant political send-ups of American culture. Born in Schenectady, NY in 1969, he graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in painting and sculpture. His work is informed by the massive industrial and corporate restructuring he witnessed growing up, namely the abandonment of the city center by manufacturing giants General Electric and ALCO. As GE shifted resources to neighboring Niskayuna, the disparities became hard for Opdyke to ignore. Massive, decaying factories, an empty interstate loop, and unemployment were downtown; new streets, expensive homes, sushi and shopping malls were in the suburbs.
For twenty years Opdyke worked as a scenic painter and architectural model-maker. Ranging from intricate miniature constructions to room-sized installations, his artwork explores globalization, consumerism, and civilization’s abusive relationship with the environment.


About this show:

In keeping with artist David Opdyke’s previous work, this site specific installation, Paved with Good Intentions, serves as a critique of U.S. culture and politics. In an era of fake news, and daily hyperbole, Opdyke literally changes the picture by hand drawing on hundreds of vintage postcards of well-known American landmarks and destinations. Satirical and slightly sinister, the work upends any preconceived notions we have of spacious skies, amber waves, or reaching the American Dream. Despite our best of intentions, we aren’t there yet. 

The Duderstadt Center provided the computer and I  got it up and running for the 2 gallery screens. It is running a program David wrote using CSS for a web browser.  I also set up the 2 screens with media players in the Osterman Common Room.  thanks to Jeff Collins and Paul Stewart from the DC for their help.

Here are some photos of the setup.  I highly encourage everyone to go see this show.  It is on the first floor gallery at the Humanities Institute at the corner of Thayer and Washington, across from the MLB and North Quad.

The opening is Friday Jan. 25. there is a panel discussion from 4-5 and the opening starts at 5 pm.

The postcard wall in the Gallery.

The 2 screens running David's program in a web browser.  The PC has not been hidden yet.

The 2 old Windows tablets running some of David's postcard animations.

The 2 screens in the Osterman Common Room running postcard animations.

One of the custom wall boxes I had built for the media players.

A close up of the box with the cover slid up for access.
The TV and media player are both plugged in and cables hidden here.