The Manhattan-based City Meditation Crew is a fictitious city department whose workers make silent gestures in “public” spaces to inspire passers-by to pay attention to their surroundings, both physical and cultural, one moment at a time. Clad in white coveralls emblazoned with the orange “slow moving vehicle” triangle, CMC workers are recognizable as they complete mundane tasks a little more contemplatively than usual, breathing new possibilities into their performance and interpretation. CMC members remain nameless to emphasize collective actions over individual identities.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
September 11th, 2010 CMC members silently read passages of the Qur’an suggested by Tanweer Haq, the Syracuse University assistant Islamic advisor at Hendricks Chapel.
Photo Maria T Salatino
Photo Maria T Salatino
Photo Maria T Salatino
Photo Maria T Salatino
Friday, October 15, 2010
CMC contemplates a toxic waste retaining wall at Wykoff Superfund Site on Bainbridge Island.
The site is known to locals as the second most toxic waste dump in the state of Washington. It exists approximately one half mile from the site where Japanese-Americans were boarded onto Ferries that would take them toward internment camps during WWII.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
CMC walks the path Japanese-Americans were forced to take as they were interned during WWII.
CMC walks toward Wykoff Toxic Waste Site and Japanese-American Internment Memorial, Bainbridge Island, Washington
Passers-by engaged in recording videos from a perfectly still point of view as an experiment in viewing the world from a reflective and non-violent point of view. Seattle ArtSparks Festival.
CMC reworked Bocce game traditions to create a collaborative performance. Seattle ArtSparks Festival.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Seattle ArtSparks Festival - Radiant Silver Circle of Gum Wrappers
At Occidental Square Park, CMC members worked with hundreds of silver foil gum wrappers, initially used by the gum industry to add value and glitz to their products. CMC subsequently reclaimed cast off wrappers from the margins of parks and city streets during walking meditations, or received them as donations from project supporters.
Seattle’s Occidental Square Park is famous as a popular tourist area, gathering space, and the origin of the phrase “skid row” which referred to a pathway for transporting recently cut down trees and subsequently became synonymous with poverty and homelessness during the Great Depression.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
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