The Final Show (Stoop Kids Never Leave the Stoop)
The Fuller Projects was an experimental gallery located in the McCalla School building, which formerly housed the Indiana University Sculpture program in Bloomington, IN. After 17 years of one-night exhibitions by IU students and faculty, community members and organizations, and national and international artists, the gallery held its final show on April 19, 2019. For this send-off, the current coordinator put out a call for proposals, for which I wrote:
Stoop Kids Never Leave the Stoop
“I think memory is essential to what we are… we wouldn’t be able to talk to each other without memory. And what we think of as the present really is the past. It is made out of the past. The present is an absolutely transparent moment that only great saints ever see occasionally.
But the present - what we think of as the present - is made up of the past. And the past is always - one moment it’s what happened three minutes ago, and one minute it’s what happened 30 years ago. And they flow into each other in ways that we can’t predict and that we keep discovering in dreams, which keep bringing up feelings and moments, some of which we never actually saw. But those moments themselves bring up the feelings that were - that we had forgotten we had. And it’s all memory.”
- Poet W.S. Merwin, 2008
Taking on the slogan “Stoop Kids Never Leave the Stoop” inspired by the Nickelodeon cartoon Hey Arnold, the cohort of artists and friends in this proposed final exhibition for The Fuller Projects once called the McCalla School home.
We were a close (sometimes too close) group of artists, educators, and friends. We (literally) built the walls of our studios, buried bronze casts of our faces in the land next to McCalla, and (some of us, literally) gave our blood for art. We are artists who have since spread across the country, going onto graduate school and educating the future great saints and stoop kids of the art world. We’re working artists, curators, and directors. While we all eventually left the stoop, the moments, feelings, past, and present live on in our stoop kid memories.
This exhibition would include work from the great saints below, including sewn Stoop Kid patches, a framed work made circa 2011 containing blood drawn from select stoop kids, a series of linocut prints from 2011 exhibited with a new series made specifically for this show, and a proposed performance. In the spring of 2010, MFA sculpture students cast their faces in bronze and buried them in the grassy area adjacent to McCalla. These would be found, recovered, and displayed in the gallery during the reception. There would also be works from the time period when working at the McCalla school, works made since leaving the McCalla school, and works created specifically for this exhibition from memories of the McCalla school.
Artists Invited to Participate:
Allison Baker (Minneapolis, MN), BFA Sculpture 2012; Dolan Cleverley (San Francisco, CA), Faculty; William Fillmore (Albany, NY), MFA Sculpture 2013; Donny Gettinger (Minneapolis, MN), MFA Sculpture 2013; Todd Frahm (Asheville, NC), Faculty; Natasha Holmes (Albany, NY), MFA Photography 2014; Terrence Heldreth (Eugene, OR), MFA Sculpture 2012; Peter Kenar (Chicago, IL) MFA Sculpture 2013; Logan Marks (Brownsburg, IN), BFA Sculpture 2012; Payson McNett (Santa Cruz, CA), MFA Sculpture 2012; Matt Meers (Fayetteville, AR), MFA Sculpture 2012; Lance Pruitt (Columbus, OH), BFA Sculpture 2013; Marla Roddy (Columbus, OH), MFA Sculpture 2012; Michele Signorino (Minneapolis, MN), Faculty; Breanne Siniard (Bloomington, IN), BFA Sculpture 2013; David Wright (Austin, TX), BFA Sculpture 2012.
Stoop Kids Never Leave the Stoop
“I think memory is essential to what we are… we wouldn’t be able to talk to each other without memory. And what we think of as the present really is the past. It is made out of the past. The present is an absolutely transparent moment that only great saints ever see occasionally.
But the present - what we think of as the present - is made up of the past. And the past is always - one moment it’s what happened three minutes ago, and one minute it’s what happened 30 years ago. And they flow into each other in ways that we can’t predict and that we keep discovering in dreams, which keep bringing up feelings and moments, some of which we never actually saw. But those moments themselves bring up the feelings that were - that we had forgotten we had. And it’s all memory.”
- Poet W.S. Merwin, 2008
Taking on the slogan “Stoop Kids Never Leave the Stoop” inspired by the Nickelodeon cartoon Hey Arnold, the cohort of artists and friends in this proposed final exhibition for The Fuller Projects once called the McCalla School home.
We were a close (sometimes too close) group of artists, educators, and friends. We (literally) built the walls of our studios, buried bronze casts of our faces in the land next to McCalla, and (some of us, literally) gave our blood for art. We are artists who have since spread across the country, going onto graduate school and educating the future great saints and stoop kids of the art world. We’re working artists, curators, and directors. While we all eventually left the stoop, the moments, feelings, past, and present live on in our stoop kid memories.
This exhibition would include work from the great saints below, including sewn Stoop Kid patches, a framed work made circa 2011 containing blood drawn from select stoop kids, a series of linocut prints from 2011 exhibited with a new series made specifically for this show, and a proposed performance. In the spring of 2010, MFA sculpture students cast their faces in bronze and buried them in the grassy area adjacent to McCalla. These would be found, recovered, and displayed in the gallery during the reception. There would also be works from the time period when working at the McCalla school, works made since leaving the McCalla school, and works created specifically for this exhibition from memories of the McCalla school.
Artists Invited to Participate:
Allison Baker (Minneapolis, MN), BFA Sculpture 2012; Dolan Cleverley (San Francisco, CA), Faculty; William Fillmore (Albany, NY), MFA Sculpture 2013; Donny Gettinger (Minneapolis, MN), MFA Sculpture 2013; Todd Frahm (Asheville, NC), Faculty; Natasha Holmes (Albany, NY), MFA Photography 2014; Terrence Heldreth (Eugene, OR), MFA Sculpture 2012; Peter Kenar (Chicago, IL) MFA Sculpture 2013; Logan Marks (Brownsburg, IN), BFA Sculpture 2012; Payson McNett (Santa Cruz, CA), MFA Sculpture 2012; Matt Meers (Fayetteville, AR), MFA Sculpture 2012; Lance Pruitt (Columbus, OH), BFA Sculpture 2013; Marla Roddy (Columbus, OH), MFA Sculpture 2012; Michele Signorino (Minneapolis, MN), Faculty; Breanne Siniard (Bloomington, IN), BFA Sculpture 2013; David Wright (Austin, TX), BFA Sculpture 2012.