Habeas Lounge
Habeas Lounge, exhibited as part of People "Weekly", Curated by Linda Norden
at: The Amie and Toni James Gallery
City University of New York, The Graduate Centerhe James Gallery, The Graduate Center of The City University of New York, 2008
at: The Amie and Toni James Gallery
City University of New York, The Graduate Centerhe James Gallery, The Graduate Center of The City University of New York, 2008
Habeas Lounge is a built environment created to foster and animate civic dialogue. At its core, Habeas Lounge is a communal seating arrangement, designed by long time MDC collaborator, architect and designer Mark Gee. The original Habeas Lounge, built from steel, wood and upholstery, was created at the 18th Street Art Center of Santa Monica where it hosted an array of discussions and events addressing constitutional issues in anticipation of the 2008 presidential election. It has since traveled from Santa Monica to downtown Los Angeles, to mid town Manhattan, to the financial district of Manhattan, to Newark New Jersey.
Artist and educator Christopher Michlig writes:
THE HABEAS LOUNGE, a space especially designed to facilitate civic exchange, is a sinuous alternative to the typically rigid formal spaces of civic dialogue. In it artist Linda Pollack hosts an evolving series of informal lectures, gatherings and events that model and enact the type of civic dialogue noticeably absent from American social life. The activities hosted in THE HABEAS LOUNGE, while not necessarily translatable into political influence, undeniable accommodates a lack in the design and format of civic dialogue. Pollack’s lounge takes the tacit misperception that the senate floor and the voting booth are the only valued spaces for meaningful political expression, and turns it on its head.
THE HABEAS LOUNGE, a space especially designed to facilitate civic exchange, is a sinuous alternative to the typically rigid formal spaces of civic dialogue. In it artist Linda Pollack hosts an evolving series of informal lectures, gatherings and events that model and enact the type of civic dialogue noticeably absent from American social life. The activities hosted in THE HABEAS LOUNGE, while not necessarily translatable into political influence, undeniable accommodates a lack in the design and format of civic dialogue. Pollack’s lounge takes the tacit misperception that the senate floor and the voting booth are the only valued spaces for meaningful political expression, and turns it on its head.
Habeas Steps was developed for the exhibition 'S'Election' at Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, October, 2016.
Initial schematic drawing of Habeas Steps for 'S'Election', Mark Gee, 2016.