Name: Charles Gaines's 'Manifestos 4: The Dred and Harriet Scott Decision'
Start: 2022-07-13T19:00:00-04:00
Location: Times Square | Father Duffy Square

Charles Gaines's 'Manifestos 4: The Dred and Harriet Scott Decision'

Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, collaborates with contemporary artists and cultural institutions to experiment and engage with one of the world's most iconic urban places. Through the Square's electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant areas and popular venues, and the Alliance's own online landscape, Times Square Arts invites leading contemporary creators, such as Charles Gaines, Joan Jonas, Jeffrey Gibson, Pamela Council, Mel Chin and Kehinde Wiley, to help the public see Times Square in new ways. Times Square has always been a cultural district and place of risk, innovation and creativity, and the arts program ensures these qualities remain central to the district's unique identity./arts

Times Square Arts

Manifestos 4: The Dred and Harriet Scott Decision launches Charles Gaines’s multi-chapter public exhibition The American Manifest.

Times Square | Father Duffy Square

<a href="http://arts.timessquarenyc.org/times-square-arts/projects/at-the-crossroads/the-american-manifest/index.aspx" title="http://arts.timessquarenyc.org/times-square-arts/projects/at-the-crossroads/the-american-manifest/index.aspx" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Times Square Arts</a>, <a href="https://creativetime.org/charles-gaines-american-manifest/" title="https://creativetime.org/charles-gaines-american-manifest/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Creative Time</a>, and <a href="https://www.govisland.com/things-to-do/public-art/the-american-manifest-moving-chains" title="https://www.govisland.com/things-to-do/public-art/the-american-manifest-moving-chains" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Governors Island Arts</a> invite you to join us July 13 and 14, 2022 on Duffy Square for Manifestos 4: The Dred and Harriet Scott Decision, two performances marking the opening chapter of Charles Gaines’s first public art exhibition, <a href="http://arts.timessquarenyc.org/times-square-arts/projects/at-the-crossroads/the-american-manifest/index.aspx" title="http://arts.timessquarenyc.org/times-square-arts/projects/at-the-crossroads/the-american-manifest/index.aspx" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">The American Manifest</a>.<h2>Manifestos 4: The Dred and Harriet Scott Decision</h2>Duffy Square, Broadway &amp; 46th St<ul><li>Wednesday, July 13: 7-8:30pm; Registered seating area opens at 6:30pm</li><li>Thursday, July 14: 7-8:30pm; Registered seating area opens at 6:30pm</li></ul>Free registered seating is limited, however, there is ample viewing space throughout Duffy Square, the Broadway pedestrian plaza between 46th and 47th Sts.For this outdoor, live performance-based installation, Gaines transforms the original text of the Supreme Court’s 1857 Dred and Harriet Scott historic decision, which decreed that people of African ancestry were not U.S. citizens, and therefore could not sue for their right to freedom. Federally sanctioning white supremacy, the ruling has long-stood as one of the court’s most disastrous decisions, irrevocably altering the course of the country’s social, cultural, and political evolution. In his return to this historical court case and its trial documents, Gaines places the inextricable legacy of slave labor in our nation’s economy directly in the center of modern-day capitalism and commerce — Times Square.The 5-part performance featuring a woodwind quintet, piano, and tenor, builds upon Gaines's Manifestos series, in which he disarms and draws upon historical texts, uniting the rational, mathematical, and lyrical structures of music with the irrationality of violence, racial tensions, and social injustice.Visit <a href="http://arts.timessquarenyc.org/times-square-arts/projects/at-the-crossroads/the-american-manifest/index.aspx" title="http://arts.timessquarenyc.org/times-square-arts/projects/at-the-crossroads/the-american-manifest/index.aspx" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Times Square Arts</a> for more information on each chapter of The American Manifest, Charles Gaines’s public art exhibition presented with <a href="https://creativetime.org/charles-gaines-american-manifest/" title="https://creativetime.org/charles-gaines-american-manifest/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Creative Time</a> and <a href="https://www.govisland.com/things-to-do/public-art/the-american-manifest-moving-chains" title="https://www.govisland.com/things-to-do/public-art/the-american-manifest-moving-chains" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Governors Island Arts</a>.<h3>Performance Details | Manifestos 4: The Dred and Harriet Scott Decision</h3>TimingShowtimes are at 7pm, Wednesday, July 13 and Thursday, July 14, 2022.The performance runs for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes.The seating area will open at 6:00pm for registered guests, with opening remarks beginning promptly at 7pm and the performance directly to follow. Please plan to arrive early as seating is general admission, and is not guaranteed. Doors will close at 7:15pm.Public Viewing AreasShould you not be able to secure registered seating, we still encourage the public to experience the performance from the ample public space throughout Duffy Square, the Broadway pedestrian plaza between 46th and 47th Sts.LocationManifestos 4: The Dred and Harriet Scott Decision and Roots will be located on Duffy Square in Times Square, at Broadway &amp; W 46th Street.Closest subway lines include 1, A, C, E at 50th Street Station; B, D, E at 7th Avenue; B, D, F, M at 47-50 St-Rockefeller Center; N, Q, R, W at 49th Street Subway Station.WaitlistIf your desired date is fully booked, we encourage you to sign up for the waitlist as openings may arise and RSVPs will help you stay up-to-date on performance information.Should you not be able to secure registered seating, we still encourage the public to experience the performance from the ample public space throughout Duffy Square and; the Broadway pedestrian plaza between 46th and 47th Sts.CancellationsDue to limited seating capacity, if you’ve registered but are unable to attend, please cancel your ticket by clicking on the link to “View and Manage your Online Order” which will be included in your Eventbrite email confirmation.Inclement Weather Advisory PlanWe intend to hold this outdoor event in (light) rain or shine, but we will monitor the weather and share updates closer to performance dates. Performances will be cancelled should severe weather conditions be forecasted.Information for Visitors with DisabilitiesThe seating area for Manifestos 4: The Dred and Harriet Scott Decision is ADA Accessible. For guests needing special accommodation, please email Times Square Arts at arts@tsq.org.COVID-19 Guidelines and ProtocolsMasks are welcome, but not required for this outdoor event. Proof of vaccination will be requested upon arrival.For any questions regarding COVID-19 guidelines and protocols or guests needing special accommodation, please email Times Square Arts at arts@tsq.org. <h3>Credits for Manifestos 4: The Dred and Harriet Scott Decision</h3><ul><li>Composed by Charles Gaines</li><li>Arrangements by Charles Gaines and John Eagle</li><li>Vocals: Darian Clonts</li><li>Piano: David Friend</li><li>Flute: Gina Izzo</li><li>Oboe: Mekhi Gladden</li><li>Clarinet: Ian Tyson</li><li>Bassoon: Joy Guidry</li><li>French Horn: Eric C. Davis</li><li>Music Director: John Eagle</li><li>Producer: Madeline Falcone</li></ul> <h3>ABOUT THE AMERICAN MANIFEST</h3>Nearly a decade in the making, presented by <a href="https://creativetime.org/charles-gaines-american-manifest/" title="https://creativetime.org/charles-gaines-american-manifest/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Creative Time</a>, <a href="https://www.govisland.com/things-to-do/public-art/the-american-manifest-moving-chains" title="https://www.govisland.com/things-to-do/public-art/the-american-manifest-moving-chains" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Governors Island Arts</a>, and <a href="http://arts.timessquarenyc.org/times-square-arts/projects/at-the-crossroads/the-american-manifest/index.aspx" title="http://arts.timessquarenyc.org/times-square-arts/projects/at-the-crossroads/the-american-manifest/index.aspx" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Times Square Arts</a>, this multi-chapter project will unfold this summer with a new series of work across three locations over two years – Times Square, Governors Island, and the banks of the Ohio River in Cincinnati. Gaines originates his sculptural, performance, and installation works within the complicated 400+ year settlement of the United States, interrogating the country’s foundations of colonialism, racial capitalism, democracy, and the legacy of Manifest Destiny. Staged in three chapters, The American Manifest tells the story of a nation founded in contradictions—a “land of the free” built on violence and domination—to contend with where we find ourselves today. <h3>CHAPTER ONE: TIMES SQUARE</h3>Manifestos 4: The Dred and Harriet Scott DecisionJuly 13 &amp; 14, 2022 | 7pmFor this outdoor, live performance-based installation, Gaines transforms the original text of the Supreme Court’s 1857 Dred and Harriet Scott historic decision, which decreed that people of African ancestry were not U.S. citizens, and therefore could not sue for their right to freedom. The 5-part performance featuring a woodwind quintet, piano, and tenor, builds upon Gaines's Manifestos series, in which he disarms and draws upon historical texts, uniting the rational, mathematical, and lyrical structures of music with the irrationality of violence, racial tensions, and social injustice.RootsJuly 13 – September 23, 2022Duffy SquareOn view in the center of Times Square’s most iconic plaza, Duffy Square, Roots is a sculptural installation of seven American Sweetgum trees, painted and presented with the root systems intact and upside down to a surreal and dystopic effect. Sweetgum trees, indigenous to the eastern United States and much more populous throughout the region that eventually became Times Square, are known for their impressive root systems that require vast open spaces to grow.Images of trees have figured prominently in Gaines’s practice since the mid-1970s, when he first began plotting their forms through a system of color-coded, numbered grids — a process that became central to his decades-long practice of interrogating the relationship between the object and subjectivity. Roots marks both a continuation of this decade’s long investigation, and Gaines’s first foray into working with trees directly in their natural, three-dimensional form.<h3> </h3><h3>CHAPTER TWO: GOVERNORS ISLAND</h3>Moving ChainsOctober 2022 – June 2023Presented as the second chapter of The American Manifest, sited at the base of Outlook Hill on Governors Island with views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Lower Manhattan, Moving Chains — a 100 foot-long immersive, kinetic sculpture — evokes the hull of a ship reverberating with the low rumble of nine chains churning overhead, while visitors pass through below. Eight of the chains move along at the pace of New York Harbor’s currents, while a central ninth chain moves noticeably faster, at the speed of the ships and barges that have traveled the city’s waterways over centuries. Moving Chains illuminates the exchange of people, capital, and goods cycling between the north and south that made up the slave trade, while calling attention to the political, judicial, and economic operations established in this country’s foundational financial system.<h3> </h3><h3>CHAPTER THREE: CINCINNATI, OHIO</h3>The American ManifestSummer 2023Staged on the banks of the Ohio River in Cincinnati, the third chapter of The American Manifest further interrogates the geographies of the complex and ongoing systems of racial capitalism and colonialism. The Ohio River has historically represented both a route to liberation, as the one-time gateway between slave and “free soil” states, as well as a historic route used to transport enslaved persons to the infamous port of New Orleans. The project’s journey to this location from New York makes a final connection between the notion of people as property - federally recognized in the case of Dred Scott - and the era of Manifest Destiny and westward expansion, built upon the belief that the American West landscape was the rightful property of the United States government. <h3> </h3><h3>ABOUT CHARLES GAINES</h3>A pivotal figure in the field of conceptual art, Charles Gaines’s body of work engages formulas and systems that interrogate relationships between the objective and the subjective realms. Using a generative approach to create series of works in a variety of mediums, he has built a bridge between the early conceptual artists of the 1960s and 1970s and subsequent generations of artists pushing the limits of conceptualism today. Gaines lives and works in Los Angeles. He recently retired from the CalArts School of Art, where he was on faculty for over 30 years and established a fellowship to provide critical scholarship support for Black students in the M.F.A. Art program. He has been the subject of numerous exhibitions in the United States and around the world, most notably a mid-career survey at the Pomona College Museum of Art and the Pitzer College Art Gallery in Claremont CA, as well as a museum survey of his Gridwork at The Studio Museum, Harlem NY, and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles CA. His work has also been presented at the 1975 Whitney Biennial and the Venice Biennale in 2007 and 2015. An exhibition of his work is currently on long term view at Dia:Beacon in New York. In addition to his artistic practice, Gaines has published several essays on contemporary art, including ‘Theater of Refusal: Black Art and Mainstream Criticism’ (University of California, Irvine, 1993) and ‘The New Cosmopolitanism’ (California State University, Fullerton, 2008). In 2019, Gaines received the 60th Edward MacDowell Medal. He was inducted into the National Academy of Design’s 2020 class of National Academicians and will be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in May 2022. <h3>PROJECT SUPPORT</h3>The American Manifest is made possible in New York and Cincinnati by the visionary support of the Ford Foundation, Lambent Foundation, VIA Art Fund, FotoFocus, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Charina Endowment Fund, Donald A. Pells Charitable Trust, the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, Morgan Stanley, Wave Pool, and mediaThe Foundation, inc.Major support is provided by Hauser &amp; Wirth, Deborah Beckmann and Jacob Kotzubei, Bob and Renee Parsons, Sanjeev Rathi, Christopher Walker, Debi and Steven Wisch, and additional anonymous supporters.We are also grateful for the support of the National Endowment for the Arts; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

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Charles Gaines's 'Manifestos 4: The Dred and Harriet Scott Decision'

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