ArtPrize Features Eames Demetrios
Grand Rapids, Michigan has been a-buzz the last couple of weeks as ArtPrize—an open art competition—has taken over the city.
According to its mission, ArtPrize exists to reboot the conversation between artists and audiences on a grand scale. Any artist—from established to emerging—has the chance to show work and any visitor can vote to determine who wins the largest art prize ($250,000) in the world. The idea is to create an environment where the public can engage with the artist and the artist can engage with public in a fresh way. (Check out the winners on the ArtPrize website.)
Eames Demetrios, the grandson of Charles and Ray Eames, is showing permanently installed bronze plaques that tell a portion of the Kcymaerxthaere (Ky-MAR-ex-theere) story: If you’re ever driving along the highway and notice roads running parallel to the one you’re on that are seldom driven on, you are not alone. If you are Eames Demetrios, those roads helped lead him to the parallel universe known as Kcymaerxthaere.
Demetrios’ entries into ArtPrize—five permanent plaques in downtown Grand Rapids—represent places in time where events occurred in the parallel universe of Kcymaerxthaere. He currently has over 60 plaques placed around the world.
The idea of Demetrios’ ArtPrize submission is to bring the story of Kcymaerxthaere into the physical space where we all live with the hopes that passers-by read the plaque and imagine what has happened at that exact place in Kcymaerxthaere.
Ideally, 150-200 plaques would be optimal so that anyone could easily visit a site from almost anywhere. If you’re in Grand Rapids, start your tour of Demetrios’ plaques at Kendall College of Art and Design. And don’t forget to visit the other works of art around the city.
