Red Lines Housing Crisis Learning Center

May 31 &ndash September 27, 2009

Melding Sesame Street graphics with do-it-yourself investigations into the intricacies of real estate finance, artist and designer Damon Rich collects the history and material culture behind the current economic crisis into an experimental site for reflection and learning. Explore the threatening spikes and troughs of interest rates in the form of a plywood construction 40 feet long and 14 feet tall; enter a ghostly looming bust of Frederick Babcock, pioneer of real estate appraisal; and walk through photographic panorama of houses in Detroit and its suburbs. Photographs and video interviews with players in the field-from community activists to investment bankers-transform abstract financial markets into networks of, if not humane, then clearly human positions.

Rich’s project was initiated during a 2007 artist residency at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as part of a project of the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), the Brooklyn-based nonprofit organization founded by the artist. Further developing the work as part of the Queens Museum’s residency program, Rich will design new pieces for the famous Panorama of the City of New York and museum café. Rich, QMA, and CUP will organize a series of talks and screenings both on- and off-site, partnering with New York City community organizations to bring people together around urgent housing issues throughout the summer.

Today, against the backdrop of the Subprime Meltdown that has pushed people out of homes, ruined neighborhoods, bankrupted institutions, and contributed to a global economic crisis, Red Lines Housing Crisis Learning Center aims to broaden and enrich the urgent conversation about how our society finances its living environments.

Click here to view foreclosures displayed on the Panorama of the City of New York on Flickr

Predatory Tales Videos

True stories of homebuying scams told by the people who lived them. Produced in partnership with the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies, MIT@Lawrence, and Lawrence Community Works.

Red Lines Housing Crisis Learning Center is presented in dialogue with The University of Trash, an exhibition by artists Nils Norman and Michael Cataldi on view at Sculpture Center May 10-August 3, 2009. Norman and Cataldi propose a radical imagination and radically different space might look like coming out of this crisis. The two exhibitions will co-host public programs and each will include an installed element from the other.
Red Lines Housing Crisis Learning Center was created by Damon Rich as a program of the Center for Urban Pedagogy.

Red Lines at Center for Advanced Visual Studies: Larissa Harris, Commissioning curator; Meg Rotzel,
Producer; Jae Shin, Producer and additional exhibition Design
Red Lines at Queens Museum of Art: Larissa Harris, Commissioning curator; Project Coordinator for Queens Museum Installation: Rana Amirtahmasebi
Thank you: Staffs of Queens Museum of Art, Center for Advanced Visual Studies, Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), MIT Museum, MIT@Lawrence, Lawrence Community Works.
Assistance and advice on artwork production: AJ Blandford, Juan Bonilla, Sarah Bostwick, Lissette Cid, Mike Delucia, Jacob Dorler, Dominique Elie, Carlos Espinoza-Toro, Stephanie Greenwood, Celina Balderas Guzman, Joseph Heathcott, Kai Desmond Jackson, Khary Jones, Lite Brite Neon Studio, Kamila Madry, John Mangin, Carlos Martinez, Karen Miller, Charles Miles, Alexa Mills, Mariana Mogilevich, Valeria Mogilevich, Rob Ochshorn, Liz Rodda, Meg Rotzel, Joshua Saal, Aaron Sarver, David Smiley, Ben Stone, Jessica Rylan, Stephanie Whitehouse, Rosten Woo
Special thanks: Margaret Crawford, Yonathan Dessalegn, Joseph Heathcott, Raj Kottamasu, Laura Kurgan, Kathe Newman, Gail Parson, David Rose, Sam Stark, Jim Stockard, The National Training and Information Center, Larry Vale, Sally Young, Joe Zane
Queens volunteers: Eleni Glekas, Moosje Goosen, Merrell Hambleton, James Harris, Haruka Horiuchi, John Krauss, Scott Grimm-Lyon, Kaarin Patterson, Emily Pinkowitz, Tyler Rowland, Marc Shavitz.
Queens special thanks: Frank Hebbert at Regional Planning Association; Josh Zinner and Deyanira del Rio at
Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP)

Red Lines Housing Crisis Learning Center is funded by grants from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Artists & Communities, a program of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, which is made possible by major funding from Johnson & Johnson, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and the JPMorgan Chase Foundation. A publication funded by The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts will be available during the exhibition. Additional support provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts.