Review of "Humanity-- A Living Installation" Interactive Project
at the Ernest Rubenstein Gallery, NYC
Sculpture Magazine
"New York State- Participatory Works: Viewers as Co-Curators"
January/ February 2000 by Jane Ingram Allen

...Another alternative space in New York, the Ernest Rubenstein Gallery at the Educational Alliance provides classes and instruction in many art forms, and its gallery program reflects this educational focus. Humanity-- A Living Installation, an exhibition by artist Devorah Sperber (May7- June 10, 1998) enlisted children and families to help create the artwork. The work deals with issues of individuality and cultural diversity and is made u of hundreds of similar but unique cast forms suggesting human faces.

Participants of all ages were invited to paint one of the cast forms and create their own unique contribution to this "visual celebration of individuality and diversity." Sperber's installation was unique in the extent of public involvement it allowed; here, viewers, even children, became collaborators in the making of the exhibited work. Sperber says, "I think the artist must be able to 'let go' of all preconceived notions of what should happen, how it should happen and what it should look like. Only after the artist has achieved this state of 'egolessness,' does authentic collaboration with non-artists and/or children become possible.


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                          		                                                                                                                               © Devorah Sperber Inc. 2000