See information on last year's exhibit. PLAY

Proteus Gowanus will reopen on Friday, October 17th. Opening reception 6 – 9 p.m.

The 2008/9 theme is MEND

“No man ever stood the lower in my estimation for having a patch in his clothes….”
 Walden, Henry David Thoreau

The 2008/9 exhibit of art, artifacts, books, and related programs at Proteus Gowanus will revolve around the theme MEND. From mending a piece of fabric to solving global problems, we will explore the theme from a multiplicity of perspectives and disciplines at a time when “fixing things,” from the mundane to the profound, seems increasingly out of our reach. To mend is to make better, to reverse brokenness, decay, deterioration; to try again, re-think, re-arrange; to sew, hammer, glue and patch; and to make whole, to grow.

"Literature holds the mechanisms of repair…”
Toni Morrison

In a culture that increasingly resorts to throwing things away when they break or lose their function, we will begin by exploring the disappearing skills and tools of repair, from darning socks and repairing shoes to fixing watches and mending clothing, including stitching, spinning, and knitting. We will look at the methods and tools of saving, recycling, conserving and archiving, from books to household refuse. We will look at art, books and objects related to regeneration of the environment, of the human body (surgery, medicine, death), and of society’s ills, including a library of books about social visionaries. Our 2009 Proteotypes publication about the Brooklyn social visionary Alfred Tredway White, produced in collaboration with the Brooklyn Historical Society, will explore White’s many contributions to “mending” the lives of NYC residents in the early 1900s.

“Cheap fossil fuel allows us to pay distant others to process our food for us, to entertain us and to (try to) solve our problems, with the result that there is very little we know how to accomplish for ourselves. Think for a moment of all the things you suddenly need to do for yourself when the power goes out.”
Michael Pollan, Why Bother? New York Times Magazine , April 20, 2008

MEND participants include:
Jenny Bevill, Jen Bervin, Stephanie Broder-Lederman, Rosamond Casey, Ted Chafee, Libby Clarke, Ellen Driscoll, Laure Drogoul, Joanna Ebenstein, Janice Everett, Charles Goldman, Paula Hayes, Jeanne Liotta, Jim Nightlinger, Pam Pederson, Debra Pearlman, Karla Roberts, Esther K Smith, Andrea Spiros, Chris Piazza, Sally Mara Sturman, Lance Rutledge, Herbert Pfostl, Heide Nielson, Robert The, Annette Taconnelli, James Walsh, Matthew Wills, The Brooklyn Museum Library and Archives.

Work by the above participants is rotated throughout the year. If you are interested in seeing work by a particular participant please email or call ahead to check availability.

2008/9 Proteus Gowanus MEND Correspondents will offer a multitude of interdisciplinary ideas on the theme MEND over the course of the year: Janice Everett, Lydia Matthews, Herbert Pfostl, Joanna Ebenstein, Ed Wood, Martin Skobel, Suzanne Khuri, Pam Pederson.

“Pity Taraska’s gone…He was worth his weight in gold.
Patch your boots or repair your watch – he’d do anything.”
 Dr. Zhivago, Boris Pasternak

We extend a big welcome to the new director of Proteus Gowanus, Tamara Pittman. Tammy will work with Proteus Gowanus Founder/Creative Director, Sasha Chavchavadze, and co-curate the MEND exhibit.

Check our page for a variety of MEND-related programs.

Also on view at Proteus Gowanus on an ongoing basis:

We remind you that, though Proteus Gowanus encourages quiet viewing and contemplation, and looks a bit like a museum, we enthusiastically sell everything on display with the exception of archival material.