Doors 7:00p
Program 8:00p

UnionDocs
352 Onderdonk Ave
Ridgewood, NY

Exhibition on view, July 3-14.

Offsite
Fallow Frames Biennial

UnionDocs is thrilled to come together with friends at Urban Omnibus to share an opening night celebration for FALLOW FRAMES, an ongoing photo series by artist, Alexa Hoyer and a debut biennial art festival from Hoyer and co-curated with Alexander Zev.

From July 7-13, we will have Hoyer’s photo series on view in the front gallery space at UnionDocs in anticipation of the first ever FALLOW FRAMES BIENNIAL, an expanded community-based project inspired by her photo series taking place across Ridgewood, Queens July 13th & 14th.

This evening will share a bit of the process behind Hoyer’s archive-based photography practice and will help to build a forum for some of the central questions being put forth by this biennial by convening a collection of artists working through the stewardship of public space in their work.

Hoyer spoke about the initial photo project with Urban Omnibus Managing Editor, Kevin Ritter, and shared:

“While many tree pits, of course, have trees and plant life, quite a lot are cut off or empty, exhibiting varying degrees of neglect and decay. During my walks around the neighborhood, I started noticing a variety of these empty tree beds and began researching and documenting them, reflecting on their strange beauty.” — In Absentia.

Artists Katarina Jerinic & Lee Cannarozzo have been invited to intertwine their inquiries with their city-centered earth works that question and surface many of the same resonant mysteries that rhyme with the stories and surprises found in Hoyer’s photographs.

Jerinic will present excerpts from a site-specific project adopting-a-highway plot carved out between a BQE exit ramp and a congested Brooklyn street, calling attention to the land itself and ways it is shaped by urban bureaucratic and natural forces, passers-by, and Jerinic’s own endless efforts to maintain it.

While Cannarozzo will share his experiments transforming a selection of neglected public micro spaces into ephemeral works of Land Art with a temporary installation project called FLAX ESTATES in Chelsea.

Lastly, when considering the provocations made in this collection of work, we couldn’t help but conjure Gillian Waldo’s astonishing new short film from this past year, Public Surfaces, that explores the One Percent for Art program, in which sculptures were placed in public schools in Baltimore City during the 1960s-1980s.

We’re quite happy to bring together a dialogue between Hoyer, Jerinic, Cannarozzo and Waldo led by one of our leading minds on our city environments, the Editor-in-Chief at Urban Omnibus, Mariana Mogilevich. We will together and with the help of these artists research and public practices unpack notions of presence and absence, neglect, stewardship, the growthful, the decaying, and the fallow and ask how we might learn from these efforts and continue to cultivate our shared commons.

Come on out early to explore the installation of photographs, and stay to hear the ideas and intentions behind this work and to add your voice and perspective to this conversation!

Also, be sure to come back for The Fallow Frames Biennial taking place July 13th and 14th, where local artists are staging site-specific installations and performances in 25 abandoned tree beds across Ridgewood.

This public festival will invite visitors to wander the neighborhood as active participants in a larger narrative of renewal and artistic expression – and to spark conversations about urban ecology and these small neglected patches of the city’s landscape. SEE THE MAP & COME THROUGH!

Program

Fallow Frames by Alexa Hoyer

Installation & Presentation, 10 mins

A tree bed is a small plot of land carved out from the solid pavement of the sidewalk — a common sight across numerous neighborhoods in New York City. While many nurture trees, plant life, and vegetation, a significant number are neglected or abandoned — overlooked corners in a city that typically puts great value on space. Ubiquitous yet enigmatic, they appear like gaps or voids in the city’s concrete landscape with questions about their nature and purpose. In 2023, Alexa Hoyer meticulously mapped and documented these spaces in various states of dereliction in her neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens, capturing a unique perspective on the distinctive topography of New York City. The exposed earth, sometimes weathered and strewn with debris, becomes a canvas for contemplation, unveiling new layers of meaning within the material of our everyday environments. The project inspired her to curate “Fallow Frames,” a group exhibition exploring these pervasive yet mysterious spaces in terms of form, culture, and architecture.

Beautification This Site by Katarina Jerinic

Excerpt / Presentation, 10 mins, 2016

Beautification This Site centers on a neglected, leftover piece of the landscape Katarina Jerinic acquired through the Department of Transportation’s Adopt-A-Highway Program, carved out between a BQE exit ramp and a congested Brooklyn street. Part earthwork, part self-assigned residency, the project called attention to the land itself and ways it is shaped by urban bureaucratic and natural forces, passers-by, and Jerinic’s own endless efforts to maintain it.

The standard issue DOT sign and the labor required of all volunteers (which became a kind of performance for passers-by) were just a part of the project. Jerinic also staged subtle interventions on the site in the form of plants and signs, a guided tour, a workshop and a projected slide show for cars stuck in traffic featuring images of trash found on site. Additionally, Jerinic made a series of photographs, videos and ephemera focused on ideas of wild spaces, urban places, and land art.

Flax Estates by Lee Cannarozzo

Presentation, 10 mins

Flax Estates were seven temporary earthworks located in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. The earthworks consisted of abandoned sidewalk plots that were tilled, amended, and planted with flax (Linum Usitatissimum). Most of the flax crops planted in the seven Flax Estates never made it to maturity; destroyed by either pigeons, dogs, or city workers. The few plants that did make it to maturity were transformed into a single paper-based nonsite. This project was an experiment in the production of locally sourced art materials and the transformation of neglected public micro spaces into ephemeral works of Land Art.

Public Surfaces by Gillian Waldo

16mm to digital, 11 mins, 2023

A film exploring the One Percent for Art program, in which sculptures were placed in public schools in Baltimore City during the 1960s-1980s, only for many of them to disappear.

Program Duration: 43 mins

Bios

Alexa Hoyer is a NYC-based German Visual Artist working in photography. In her most recent work, she meticulously creates photographic archives of ad hoc systems in everyday environments. Alexa exhibited internationally, including PS122 Gallery, Mana Contemporary, NJ, the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, TX, Arles Les Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France, PHOTO IS:RAEL, the Inside Out Arts Museum in Beijing and a video installation at the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, PA. She participated in LMCC’s Governors Island artist residency and was recently awarded the 2023 Queens Arts Fund (QAF) New Work Grant. Her photography has been published in Hyperallergic, Vice, Urban Omnibus, DOMUS, and Harper’s Magazine. In 2022 her project “Wegweiser” was published by Kenektid in Seoul, Korea. Alexa received a BFA from Webster University in St Louis, MO and an MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA.

Mariana Mogilevich is a writer and historian of architecture and urbanism focused on the design and politics of the public realm. She is editor in chief of Urban Omnibus, and author of The Invention of Public Space: Designing for Inclusion in Lindsay’s New York (U Minnesota Press, 2000).

Katarina Jerinic makes photographs, maps and ephemera about built landscapes and the past and present of particular places. Solo exhibitions and projects include SPACES, Cleveland, OH; Baxter St at CCNY, New York, NY; Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art at University of Nevada Las Vegas; and a public project along the Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn, NY supported by NYC Department of Transportation Art Program and neighborhood partners. Her projects have been supported by Puffin Foundation, Teaneck, NJ; Times Square Alliance, New York; Brooklyn Arts Council, NY and chashama, New York among others. Residencies include Wave Hill, Bronx, NY; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York; Typa, Tartu, Estonia; Center for Book Arts, New York; and MacDowell, Peterborough, NH. Her work has been discussed in Hyperallergic, New York Magazine, Washington City Paper, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer. Jerinic has an MFA in Photography and Related Media from School of Visual Arts and a BA in History from American University.

Lee Cannarozzo (b. 1989, Las Vegas, NV) is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist with an M.F.A in Studio Art from SUNY University at Buffalo and a B.A. in Art History from The University of Nevada Las Vegas. Cannarozzo’s work has been exhibited in various cultural centers such as The Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, The Burchfield Penney Art Center, The Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, and The Visual Studies Workshop. Through a protean practice that utilizes constantly evolving methodologies and media relevant to the subject of each artistic project, his work investigates the contemporary resonance of various social, legal, and ecological histories

Gillian Waldo is originally from Baltimore, Maryland and makes short nonfiction works about the built world on16mm. Her work has screened at Prismatic Ground, IndieLisboa, Open City Documentary Festival, Cosmic Rays, the Winnipeg Underground Film Festival, and ICDOCS among other festivals. She co-runs Syllabus Project, programmed QuaranTV, works in libraries, and is currently based in Milwaukee, WI.

More about the Fallow Frames Biennial

Ridgewood’s sidewalks have over 800 empty tree beds – or roughly one for every 90 residents.

The Fallow Frames Biennial is an upcoming public art festival that will be held on July 13th and 14th, where local artists are invited to use 24 abandoned tree beds to stage site-specific installations and performances.

Visitors are invited to wander the neighborhood as active participants in a larger narrative of renewal and artistic expression – and to spark conversations about urban ecology and these small neglected patches of the city’s landscape. Follow the map below to tour the beds and meet the artists!

co-curated by Alexa Hoyer & Alexander Zev

July 13 & 14 from 2-7PM.