Part of A Dallas Drinking Fountain Project, the sculpture responds to a Jim Crow "White Only" sign that was revealed in 2003 when a metal plate above the fountain fell away. Drinking Fountain  #1 is a transformed yet still functional public drinking fountain which, when triggered, projects newsreel footage of 1960s civil rights protests, inviting visitors to the Records Building to meditate on history, heroism, civic duty and social change.
 
woods will share the story of her project and the many important questions it raises about socially-engaged art production and the ability of new modes of public art to unlock lessons from collective memory and cultural trauma. The evening will culminate in an opportunity for conversation among participants and community leaders over a shared meal.  

Seating is limited. Advance registration requested.

The Gallery Lab series brings the spirit of experimentation to the Nasher galleries.  Join us for informal conversations, interactive presentations, performances, demonstrations and unexpected viewpoints on art with artists and voices from other disciplines. Expand your concept of a gallery talk and discover a fresh perspective on what it means to engage with the arts. Expect to be surprised!

lauren woods Biography

lauren woods is a multimedia artist whose hybrid media projects—film, video and sound installations, interventions and site-specific work—engage history while contemplating the socio-politics of the present. Challenging the tradition of documentary/ethnography as objective, she creates ethno-fictive documents that investigate invisible dynamics in society, remixing memory and imagining other possibilities. She explores how traditional monument-making can be translated into new contemporary models of memorializing, substituting the traditional marble and granite for digital video. Born in Kansas City, MO and raised in Dallas, TX, woods holds a BA in Radio, Television and Film and a BA in Spanish with a sociology minor from the University of North Texas. In 2006, she received her Masters of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally, including Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, Miami as well as Puerto Rico, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Mali and France. She has been the recipient of grants and awards from numerous institutions including The Tribeca Film Foundation, College Art Association, Alliance of Artists Communities and the San Francisco Foundation.