For Fates
Melanie Crean
GALLERY II
Melanie Crean, Rewrite Power, Inst. of Transformative Mentoring, 3.27.19, 2019.
April 18 - May 19, 2019
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 18, 6-8pm
First Thursday Dumbo Art Walk: Thursday, May 2, 6-8pm
A.I.R. Gallery is pleased to announce For Fates, an exhibition by Fellowship Artist Melanie Crean. For Fates is based on a set of collective imaginings about what a future culture of justice might be like in New York City after the close of the Rikers Island Jail Complex. A range of ideas, texts, and designs was produced in workshops with groups affected by the criminal justice system working with the Red Hook Community Justice Center, and the Institute of Transformative Mentoring. The exhibition features outcomes from these sessions, shown from the perspective of their imagined future.
A selection of these designs has been realized in prototypes. These include more speculative ideas, such as visioning masks that help synthesize points of view of everyone participating in a restorative justice circle. They also include fully functional works that can impact the present, such as reconfiguring predictive policing algorithms to instead create processes that anticipate the need for health and mental wellness facilities. Design specifications have been compiled in a publication complemented by short essays written to demonstrate how such ideas can start becoming realities.
Public Program:
After Rikers: Justice by Design workshop, May 9th at 5:30PM
Red Hook Community Justice Center, 88 Visitation Place, Brooklyn, NY 11231
Read the full press release here.
View Crean's webpage here.