Julia is currently developing a traveling public art project, the Radical Repair Workshop (website here)
The Radical Repair Workshop is a pop-up art experience housed inside a vintage 1966 Frolic camper. The project encourages participants and viewers to consider their relationship to mending, sentimental objects, single-use items, and radical (potentially non-functional) modes of repair.
Inside the Radical Repair Workshop camper, there is a functional art studio, a gallery of repaired items, and space for hands-on workshopsand information sessions. Items that have been donated by the public or scavenged by Julia are taken in, assessed, and “repaired” in a manner aligning to their history.
The “repairs” these items undergo may be technically non-functional or “productive” but they relate to a sculptural investigation of the object’s story, level of decay, and psychic/emotional energy. The approach to mending will be non-traditional—your item may not actually be “fixed,” but it will be transformed into a permanent art object, thus realigning our relationship to its “value.” The repaired items join the archive of the Radical Repair Workshop, along with their story, to be shared with future audiences along the journey of the project.
Much more information on the Radical Repair Workshop can be found on the website or instagram page.
The Radical Repair Workshop is supported by arts organizations as well as individuals. The project has received grants or other financial support from:
- Archie Green Fellowship (American Folklife Center, Library of Congress)
- Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Sculpture + Extended Media (Adjunct Art Grant)
- The Durham Arts Council (Ella Fountain Pratt Emerging Artist Grant)
- Downtown Durham, Inc. (Public Space Project Grant)
- Duke University Rubenstein Center for the Arts (Visiting Artist Grant)