If you’ve visited the Museum recently, you may have noticed the lofty wooden structure in Sculpture Hall. Titled The Garage Lab, the 16-foot-tall installation resembles a partially constructed two-car garage. It was created by multimedia artist Gary Simmons, who is known for his ability to create art that examines the harsh edges of society. The structure will act as a platform for performances during The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary in the 21st Century.
Created as a generative space for interaction, invention, and experimentation, The Garage Lab will host live performances by a local network of poets, musicians, dancers, and DJs during the exhibition. When the space is not being activated by performances, video playback of previous productions will be displayed on a nearby monitor.
The piece is built from lumber, plaster, foil, and found objects, among other materials. It resembles a typical suburban garage with amplifiers and other musical equipment set up for band practice. The interior is lined with digitally and physically altered concert posters, both vintage and recent, collected from around the world—including ones from St. Louis events and venues.
“The posters are specific to a time when the way we received information about subcultures—about bands playing, records dropping, and things like that—you’d hear about through fliers on the street,” the artist said in an interview with the Detroit Free Press about past installations he’s created with posters.
Simmons gained popularity in the early 1990s with his unique work that explores pop culture and the politics of social stereotypes through mediums like painting, sculpture, sound, and architecture. As his career evolved, so did his artistic expression. In the late 1990s he shifted from mainly sculptures to a wide range of media, including paint and schoolhouse objects, skywriting, and large-scale wall drawings. Much of his work draws inspiration from hip hop music, including this life-size garage.
“Hip hop, early hip hop, really affects a lot of the work that I do, because of the way that DJs would sample and pull from many different genres from local sound to dance music or what have you. There was no problem with taking, for instance, a sample from a Patsy Cline and putting it next to Johnny Cash and flipping that against Sly & The Family Stone,” Simmons said in an interview with Vice.
A schedule of performances in The Garage Lab will be updated on the main page for The Culture throughout the run of the exhibition.
