Green Art

Artist Raul Romero will be exhibiting his works at the EXPO, but he will also be participating at the Thursday, April 10th carbon offset tree planting at Tower Park. His "Sulphur Springs desert walk" is a participatory walking art project that navigates the cracks formed in the pavement. We follow each other, walking on the cracks to flow across the desert.

The tree planting is being conducted by the Going Green Tampa Bay EXPO committee and volunteers, to offset the carbon (CO2) emitted by the electricity and the transportation associated with putting on the event.

Join us at Tower Park on Thursday, April 10th for the walk and the tree planting.

EXPO Art Exhibits

“How We Walk in Tampa”: A Participatory Event
Location:  USF SunDome, performance stage
Time: To be conducted at 11:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.
 
Conducted by Ginger MacConnell, Raul J. Romero, Victoria Skelly, D. Alessandro and Laura M. Bergeron.
“A group of my students have been working with walking as their artistic medium - given the specific ways in which our navigation is structurally organized around the vehicle, these students have been developing walking performance art, trying to use walking as political and aesthetic practice - perhaps because it is such a simple gesture with such critical potential, or perhaps because walking is so divorced from the practice of their daily life that it can become, instead of a practice integrated with other social practices (like buying bread, or bumping into strangers, or going to work) instead an extraordinary creative and social experiment.”  Rozalinda Borcila, USF Associate Professor
 
 “Walking on Eggshells”: Sculpture
Location: USF SunDome, to the side of the performance stage
 
Writes artist Ginger MacConnell: “My sculpture is a metaphor referring to walking… I had never literally walked on eggshells before but I feel as an artist, and other artists possibly, I am always going to be walking on eggshells to bring to the public art that is worthy of the public appreciation.  I feel it is a bit of a gamble to what will be seen in art projects and how they will be perceived by others.  I personally want to create beauty in art, others however want to make a statement to the public of some kind.  Some people may not like my art.  Others will feel driven to criticize and critique.  This is where as an artist I walk on eggshells.  It doesn't take but one bad tasteless art piece to turn the public’s eye away, perhaps never to want to consider my art again.”
 
“Clay Bull”: Sculpture
Location:  USF SunDome, to the side of the performance stage
 
As clay comes from the earth, so does the hay that feeds the bull.  “It is a constant cycle from the earth.  The bull eats, discards, and then eats what [he] has contributed to.  The bull is from the earth and the earth needs the bull to grow.”  See artist Ginger MacConnell’s Clay Bull.
 
 
“Circle of Surveillance” video
Location:  USF SunDome, to the side of the performance stage
 
This video is a product of a previous participatory walk.  Writes artist Ginger MacConnell, “My type of walking has to do with surveillance.  I walk a "Circle of Surveillance" around my neighborhood and that is the basis of my study and video… People walk around the same area on a daily basis and really don't observe it or know what is there.”