The frailty of Miami Beach as a barrier island in an urban center is the subject of the Bass Museum of Art’s new addition to its series tc: temporary contemporary.
Visual and performance artist Reed van Brunschot collaborated with Francisca Twiggs, a painter who works as commercial display artist and fabricator, to create It’s Like the River, De Nile. The work is installed in the storefront windows of the Walgreen’s store located at the corner of Collins Avenue and 23rd Street, along a popular pathway to the public beach. Using set design and analog stage tricks, everyday objects and shoreline detritus make up a narrative installation that is both whimsical and eerily foreboding.
“Apocalyptic flooding has been depicted throughout the history of art,” said Jose Carlos Diaz, Bass Museum of Art Curator of Exhibitions. “Twiggs and van Brunschot have given us their own interpretation of this subject in light of 21st century global warming.”
Artist Reed van Brunschot says “Our intention is to utilize this location’s storefront to sell the idea of ‘The Great Flood’, a theme approached throughout history in the arts as something destructive yet cleansing, beautiful yet violent and principally, a subject that is so very relevant however lamentably taboo here in South Florida. There is a level of absurdity in the political dismissal of even using the words “climate change”. It is these dualities in this very current social topic that has brought on the inspiration for the artwork and it’s title.”
Reed van Brunschot received her BFA from the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam in 2011 and has exhibited and performed internationally. In 2014, her work was seen in Miami at Primary Projects and Locust Projects at NADA Fair; and Galeria Logo in Porto Alegre in Brazil. She was also a fellow in both Cannonball and the Artist in Residence in the Everglades residency program.
Francisca Twiggs received her BFA in painting from the University of Miami in 2008 and currently works as the Senior Display Coordinator for Anthropologie in Miami, FL.
tc: temporary contemporary
Since the Bass Museum of Art and the City of Miami Beach launched the tc: temporary contemporary program in 2012 over 45 sculptures, murals, videos and sound installations have activated the park and the neighborhood adjacent to the museum since its inception.
tc: temporary contemporary is an ongoing project, as works of art explore interactions and relationships to an environment, to a site and to each other. This general theme includes the nuances of communication and interactivity, as well as the physical relationship to architecture. The topography of the city is pointed to, redrawn and redefined by some projects. Others convey a sense of surprise via displacement, where seemingly common objects in public space are not what they appear. A number of projects are designed to promote new, vibrant meeting places for social interactions in the community.
tc: temporary contemporary is made possible through the support of The City of Miami Beach.
The Bass Museum of Art is a nonprofit tax-exempt organization accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. The Bass Museum of art is generously funded by the City of Miami Beach Cultural Affairs Program, Cultural Arts Council, Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture and the Bass Museum of Art membership.