Community Art-Share the Love

Harrell Fletcher did a series of works under the title Garage Sale Series.  For this series, Fletcher asked people around the neighborhood where he had his Oakland, California gallery to inform him if they were planning to have a garage sale.  Fletcher then took the items that a specific family was planning to sell, and he arranged them in displays in his gallery.  He asked the family for the explanation or story connected to each item, and he wrote the stories on tags and attached the corresponding tag to each item.  Then Fletcher held an open house for his gallery.  The neighborhood was invited to attend.

Fletcher’s work involved many relationships.  He formed relationships with the families whose items he was selling.  It seemed to me the Fletcher liked to feel a connection with the people in his neighborhood, and he probably got close to some of the families through hearing their stories about the items they were selling.  Fletcher also wanted the members of the neighborhood to form a relationship with the art.  He felt that a lot of art was very inaccessible to people; it was too formal or the people did not understand it.  But people could understand his art.  Who doesn’t have some junk they would put in a garage sale?  And everyone has a story about their favorite stuffed animal that they choose to give up at some point in their life.  People who visited his Garage Sale exhibits were able to connect to the art.  They also were able to connect to the family who had supplied the stuff because viewers basically got to look into a portion of those family’s’ lives.  I am sure that some of the tags contained some intimate family information.

The Garage Sale Series was a reflection of community arts because the items came from families around the community.  The “art” existed because a family from the community wanted to get rid of some items, and there was an artist who saw an idea in that.  It was community art because much of the community was inspired by the exhibit or at least interested enough to go view it.  The most community-like aspect was probably the sale at the end of the exhibit.  After the items were on display, the community had the opportunity to shop and buy the items like they were at a real garage sale (complete with low prices). 

 Picture from one of the Garage Sale exhibits.