| Jamie Burkart in Great Accomodations |
When Burkart talks about the river he speaks slowly and pensively. He says things like: "The value is more than historical. The resource is more than industrial." It was the Missouri River itself, the unique role it plays in the landscape and evolution of Kansas City, that drew him to the raft expedition in 2007. But the experience proved to be more of a social experiment than an environmental excursion.
"So much of our life is about stepping in a continuous way along a social network," he says. "What I liked about the trip was we totally jumped."
That's what he's trying to do with the current exhibit at the Paragraph Gallery. The idea behind "Great Accomodations" is to draw out the culture and connections of river cities. Burkart and collaborator Suzanne Hogan sent out hundreds of letters to such towns, asking their residents to contribute their own social artifacts or show up at the gallery in person to share what the river means to them.
Thus far, Burkart says, the only firm confirmation has come from Vicksburg, Mississippi. That's where he and his raft crew stopped for two months, when the Army Corps of Engineers deemed the cycle-powered boat unfit for passage on the heavily traveled Missippi River. A local lumber worker, who took in the artists while they upgraded their craft, plans to attend the opening reception on September 18.
Though the gallery opened to the public this week, the exhibit is mostly empty. Burkart leads me through the recycled door into a womb-like cavity where the walls are made of billowy pink plastic.
"This is an abstraction of the river experience for me," he says, pausing and then chuckling. "Maybe a little sugarcoated." Burkart points out that the seams connecting the giant sheets would cross the Missouri River, at its Kansas City width, three times.
Following a trail of white tiles, viewers will see a video installation in that first room and a water sculpture (river water, of course) in the second room. There, participants will have a "moment of choice," Burkart says, where the bubbly maze will shoot off in two directions. Right now, the only opening leads to another plastic room facing the street. There, danging from the ceiling, flanked by two bicycles, is the paddle wheel that propelled the 2007 raft excursion.
Burkart is still hopeful that residents will send their own watery relics or show up at the doorstep to get involved -- soon. But even if they don't, the river-faring artist will still be satisfied.
"This is already a complete experience today, but it's not over yet," he says.
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