KINGSTON, R.I. –November 30, 2007—Local artists Michael Townsend and Adriana Yoto captured nationwide attention this fall when it was revealed that they and six artistic collaborators had been living since 2003 in a luxury apartment they built in an empty storage area above the parking garage in the Providence Place Mall.
Townsend and Yoto will participate in a discussion at the University of Rhode Island Tuesday, Dec. 4 from 11 .am to 12: 15 p.m. in the Galanti Lounge of the URI Library, 15 Lippitt Road, Kingston. It is expected that the artists will show video clips of them building their apartment and living in the mall. The presentation is free and open to the public.
“The artists’ appearance at URI was initiated by my students who pursued every aspect, including tracking the artists down and staying in touch with them,” says Philosophy Professor Galen Johnson. The students are enrolled in Johnson’s honors class: Honors Tutorial in Philosophy-Art and Justice.
“This class project has focused attention on a complex set of issues at the border between art and justice: social class and mall life, home and homelessness, public and private property, neighborhoods and re-development, trespassing and the law,” says the professor.
The URI Honors Program sponsors the presentation.