Transformazium

Transformazium is the collaborative practice of Dana Bishop-Root, Ruthie Stringer and Leslie Stem. Our projects examine local systems of communication, exchange and resource distribution; redirect resources from an arts economy to a local economy; and participate in an active local arts discourse that includes voices currently underrepresented in more dominant arts discourses: young people, the elderly, communities of color, people from poor and working class backgrounds and those outside of the University education system. We use our position between our neighborhood and the larger art world to expand and connect both discourses.

The Art Lending Collection at the Braddock Carnegie Library makes artworks available for checkout to anyone in Allegheny County with a valid library card in the same way one would check out a book. The collection features work by nearly all of the artists in the 2013 Carnegie International, but It also honors the discourse production of our neighborhood by including three groups of works gifted by library patrons with whom we have had an arts based dialogue: James Kidd, Regis Welsh and Ray Henderson. These collections speak to the diversity of aesthetic perspectives that exist in our neighborhood, and fill in some gaps in the dominant arts discourse, particularly in the inclusion of explicitly political and African American themes.

Points of Interest brought artists and youth together to reimagine places in our neighborhood and install sight-responsive artworks.
Artists: Swoon (above), Material Exchange, Forays, Polina Soloveichic, Lady Pink, Noah Sparkes, Sam Freidman, There Is A House,
Maya Hayuk, Merissa Lombardo, Mary Tremonte, and Leon Reid IV.

An ongoing collaboration and evolving studio project: Currently, we are exploring a form of collaboration in which Transformazium acts as Jim's studio assistants, offering our time and technical skills to realize projects on a larger scale than Jim would otherwise commit to. Our collaborative installation is currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit as part of the People's Biennial 2.