Provisional Obstruction (Little Haiti II)

Collaboration with misael soto

August 6 - September 18, 2022

Dimensions Variable, 101 NW 79th Street Miami, FL 33150

Kick-off Gathering

Saturday August 6, 2022, 6-9 pm

Join us for the introductory phase of Provisional Obstruction (Little Haiti II). As an invitation to those who live, work, and often pass-by this space, the public installation of scaffolding and reflective fabric will present the building’s façade as a space to be occupied. Please speak to the artists about how you can be a part of the artwork!

Unveiling & Cookout

Sunday, August 28, 2022, 5-8pm

The second and final phase of Provisional Obstruction (Little Haiti II) will unveil and celebrate the work of community collaborators in dialogue with the initial installation, projecting their desires for the future of the surrounding neighborhood. As a culmination of the work done together, the final installation will be open to view till September 18, 2022.

Provisional Obstruction (Little Haiti, Miami II) continues a collaborative series of works by Miami-based artist misael soto and New Delhi-based artist Ayesha Singh, which began in 2017 in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago and continued in Little Haiti, Miami in 2019, and Miami Beach in 2021. The artworks employ dysfunctionally-installed scaffolding, and banner-sized architectural and historical imagery, both temporary and pragmatic objects and structures that are typically secondary and subservient to what is traditionally seen as more permanent objects and structures such as buildings. Site-specific architectural, infrastructural, and community-based research is applied aesthetically to formulate the shape of the scaffolding, and inform the content of the images that are fastened to the scaffold’s skeletal framework. The public installations deviate passersby viewpoints and divert foot traffic along the sidewalk in front of these buildings, becoming catalysts for conversation on shared ideas of stability birthed from objects that connote impermanence. Considered to be performative, the work’s transience, dysfunction, and alterations will be amplified through interaction which includes the work’s installers, viewers, everyday passersby, and intentionally placed actors.

This fourth iteration of Provisional Obstruction is located at Dimensions Variable a contemporary art space in Little Haiti, one of Miami’s most rapidly changing and gentrifying neighborhoods due in large part to its higher elevation as compared to the rest of Miami, a phenomenon known as climate gentrification. The building at 101 NW 79th Street has previously played host to other tenants including a pet store and an automotive repair shop. Often mistaken to be an unoccupied building, the public installation opens the space and building to its neighbors, community, and passersby.

The scaffold is designed to point toward itself and its own dysfunctionality. It adopts a precarious form toward a structural fragility that is simultaneously freestanding but tethered onto the architecture of the building. A reflective and self-reflexive visual and critical exercise is the intended experience, with a literal undercurrent of rising water, the structure mimics a wave arching over, about to crash onto the building.

At first, the scaffold will be covered in fragments of reflective panels. In an effort to broaden the work’s context, misael and Ayesha have directly engaged community collaborators including artists, activist groups, and local businesses. Together with the artists, they are invited to envision and create additions to the work with a simple prompt: “What changes would you like to see in your community/communities?” This included misael, Ayesha and Outreach Coordinator Lance Minto-Strouse canvas the neighborhood, reach out to specific artists and groups, and follow up with community members who've answered the artwork's open call.

This included contributions by Chire Regans (aka Vantablack), Devora Perez, Eddie Arroyo, Flowers and Services, Lance Minto-Strouse, the Miami Workers Center, WAAM (Women Artists Archive Miami); participatory performances by Arsimmer McCoy and Vanya Allen; music by DJ Kool Large and Lagrimas de Oro; and food catering as well as a banner contribution by B & M Market and Roti Shop. (scroll below to see a ton of images)

Provisional Obstruction (Little Haiti II) will be installed at Dimensions Variable for six weeks, and will have two openings with a gap of 3 weeks. The first opening will be on Saturday August 6, 2022, 6-9 pm. The second opening and neighborhood cookout will be Sunday, August 28, 2022, 5-8pm.

This project is made possible with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, Dimensions Variable, and Commissioner. Special thanks to Anita Sharma, Dejha Carrington, and Lance Minto-Strouse (Outreach Coordinator).

Previous works in this series:

Provisional Obstruction (Infinity), virtual, 2022

Provisional Obstruction (Miami Beach), 2021

Provisional Obstruction, postcard on collaboration, Terrain Biennale, Chicago, 2021

Provisional Obstruction (Little Haiti), Miami, 2019

Provisional Obstruction (Pilsen), Chicago, 2017