CCS BARD

For his first exhibition in the Hudson Valley, Pittsburgh-based artist Jon Rubin has conceived of a new, site-specific project at the Center for Curatorial Studies that aims to catalyze a more direct relationship between the CCS and its local audience. For Homing Pigeon Loft, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Hudson Valley, New York, USA, ten homing pigeons will be housed in a “loft” located outside the CCS starting at the end of January 2011. During the exhibition, Bard College students, faculty, and staff will take birds home for several days and then release them to return to campus. By sharing the responsibility of producing and maintaining the artwork, the participants and institution contribute to the ongoing life of the project. At once poetic and practical, the temporary placement of the pigeons in audience members’ homes expands the space of the museum. As domestic spaces become temporary exhibition sites, the institutional space is cast as a home for the artwork’s physical components – the pigeons.

Jon Rubin is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work explores the social dynamics of public places and the idiosyncrasies of individual and group behavior. His projects include starting a radio station in an abandoned steel town that only plays the sound of an extinct bird, developing a hypnotized human robot army, running an autonomous nomadic art school, and operating a working restaurant that produces a live talk show with its customers.

Thinking About Flying is curated by Karin Campbell as part of the requirements for the master of arts degree in curatorial studies.

Student-curated projects at CCS Bard are made possible with support from the Rebecca and Martin Eisenberg Student Exhibition Fund; the Mitzi and Warren Eisenberg Family Foundation; the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Charitable Foundation; the Board of Governors of the Center for Curatorial Studies, and by the Center’s Patrons, Supporters, and Friends. Additional support is provided by the Monique Beudert Award Fund.