There is a larger-than-life envelope hanging on the side of Zeppelin Café on Burnett Avenue, and it wants to hear from you.
On its side are two mail slots, one marked PUBLIC and the other PRIVATE. The PUBLIC slot invites the people of Schnitzelburg to deposit “comments, cares, and/or reasonable requests” pertaining to the neighborhood, and each message will be posted online and given serious consideration by the neighborhood council. The PRIVATE slot has a more ethereal purpose. Letters sent down this shaft will never be read by anyone, and will instead be shredded into fertilizer and reincarnated into a tree. The address on the front of the envelope: “Our Hearts Desire, 528 Universe Way, Somewhere Out There.” The intention of the artists, husband-and-wife team Russel Hulsey and Shelley Vaughn Hulsey, is to help everyday citizens voice their desires and concerns to their local government or, if they choose, to the cosmos.
The project is the most recent in a series of public artworks commissioned by the PAINT Program (Producing Art in Neighborhoods Together), a relatively new division of the long-standing non-profit organization Center For Neighborhoods. The PAINT Program pairs conceptual, practicing local artists with Louisville neighborhoods in order to create participatory art that exists outside the walls of traditional institutions. It’s a winning situation for artists and communities alike. Chosen artists receive support from the Louisville Metro-funded program to complete unique site-specific work, and communities reap the benefit of having hands-on access to contemporary art.
Russel Hulsey’s work has consistently evoked a playfulness, a sense of the cycle of life, the power of communication, and the yearning for better human interaction. His solo exhibition last year at 21C Museum Hotel disclosed the deeply spiritual aspect of his work, with its effigial charcoal drawings of poets and his glass-blasted interpretation of a 1967 Bruce Nauman text: “The Ture Atrsit Hleps the Wrold By Revaelnig Msyitc Truhts.” All of these themes seem part of the new public sculpture in Schnitzelburg, called Push The Envelope, though with this latest work the desire to reach out for social change is more explicit. I recently caught up with Russel and Shelley and asked them about their experience.
Julie Leidner:
Russel, as an artist with a long history of exhibiting work in galleries and museums, and not necessarily a known history of social activism, in what ways did you have to approach this “public art” project differently from the way you approach the work in your typical studio practice?
Russel Hulsey:
It can be said that Push the Envelope pushed my envelope. That’s a fact; and I am thankful for it. This particular project is different for me in two major ways. The first being that Center for Neighborhoods expressly stipulated that this be a work that was “community oriented” and somehow “socially interactive”. The second reason, and most exciting to me on a number of personal levels, is that this is the first truly collaborative work that I have ever worked on as an artist; and my collaborator was none other than my partner in life – my wife – artist Shelley Vaughn Hulsey! Everything about this work and this project was shared, both conceptually and concretely between myself and my wife. I happen to think she is brilliant on a number of different levels, and it was an honor to share this experience with her.
Push the Envelope is an Artwork for the people by the people in the most open-minded and democratic way possible. Shelley and I consider ourselves to be the “conceptual designers” of the work; it is the people (in particular the residents of Schnitzelburg and Germantown at large) who technically bring the project into being by interacting with it. This vessel or “sculpture” of an envelope bearing specially designed postage and addressed to Our Heart’s Desire and the “Universe” is merely a platform. It is nothing but a metaphor and a vacant shell without the people’s deposits of hopes and dreams. As residents begin to fill the sculpture, the work itself is made manifest. Shelley and I find this to be the most beautiful aspect of the “interactive” quality inherent within the work. Working with Center for Neighborhoods, the Schnitzelburg Area Community Council, the good folks at Zeppelin Café, and with Shelley has made this project unlike any other. This is an Artwork that didn’t really take place in the studio – rather, the streets.
In addition, Shelley has a history of more apparent, direct social activism related to particular topics: health care, the food industry at large, and agriculture. I have participated in events concerning the Kentucky Waterways Alliance, mountain top removal, the Festival of Faiths (with a great personal hero of mine – Wendell Berry), and I intend to continue work in a number of ways with and for Veterans of the Armed Forces (as I am myself a combat Veteran of United States Marine Corps).
JL:
Considering the cosmic destiny of the letters that go into the “private” slot of Push the Envelope, are you hleping the wrold revael msyict truhts?
RH:
One of the scholarly tenets of the mystical experience is that it is by definition, self-verifiable. Meaning, that the only one who may directly validate the “mystical” is the experiencer his or herself. In this sense, what is mystical is highly self-oriented with regard to one’s direct relationship to a feeling of sublimity or “higher awareness.” I couldn’t say if Push the Envelope does this or not, but Shelley and I do hope that it provides a springboard for such an encounter, most certainly. Shelley and I largely believe in the power of Art because of its ability to reveal truth.
JL:
Shelley, out of all of the neighborhoods available to work with, what was it about Schnitzelburg that inspired you, and what aspect of your finished design contains the particular spirit of that neighborhood?
Shelley Vaughn Hulsey:
I suppose it was a matter of fate. I had to answer a phone call, so I stepped out of the room and when I returned — Schnitzelburg was the remaining neighborhood! So we sort of chose the neighborhood by default, or maybe it was Schnitzelburg that chose us. To be honest, we are thankful for the twist of fate.
We live in Old Louisville and have a studio downtown. We frequent Schnitzelburg and Germantown; they are amazing neighborhoods with wonderful and interesting people. Zeppelin, Zanzabar, and Eiderdown among others are frequent hangouts!
We believe the “particular spirit” of Schnitzelburg is summed up in one word: community. For this reason we hand-painted the word – community – in the Schnitzelburg postage stamp we created for the Pop Art envelope sculpture.
JL:
Can you give one or two notable examples of the public messages that have been submitted?
SVH:
There are so many that are just fantastic on many levels. Ok, here is one: “I AM. I CARE. I CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. GOOD NEIGHBORS, MAKE GREAT COMMUNITIES.“
JL:
Can you two elaborate on any plans or dreams you may have for future collaborations?
SVH:
We are constantly working together day and night; it never really ends. We tend to view art as adventure, and we love taking the journey together. In the words of Hunter S. Thompson: “Buy the ticket, take the ride.”
Russel and I just returned from a whirlwind trip to Philadelphia and New York where we participated in an exhibition entitled Young Country. Currently, we are developing plans for a public artwork in Philadelphia; and we hope to travel to India next year where we will be working with the Shanti Seva Trust (akin to Habitat For Humanity) to aid in quality of life for rural villagers. On the Kentucky home front, we are in the initial phases of developing projects for a number of organizations, none of which we should name just yet! It takes time for these things to evolve, and to move from dream to reality. Thankfully, Russel and I are patient. The secret is to always keep an iron in the fire, and to never doubt your abilities or vision. If it is meant to be, the will is strong and the intent pure – then it will happen.
–Julie Leidner
Read the many colorful public messages collected by the Push the Envelope project on its Facebook page or on its blog, yourenvelope.blogspot.com. For information about how to get involved with Center For Neighborhoods and the PAINT Program, go to centerforneighborhoods.org. Louisville artists interested in participating in the next open call for PAINT project proposals should contact halliej@centerforneighborhoods .org in early August.
The artists would like to thank Hallie Jones, Jason Noble, Chuck Swanson, Bruce Nauman, Chris Radtke, Mary Carothers, Stephen Irwin, Karen Gillenwater, Gill Holland, Julien Robson, Alice Stites, and Creative Capital (in no particular order) for guidance and inspiration.
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