A Social Medium
Tape is the perfect medium for the healing arts and activism. Its temporary nature allows for large or small scale expressions of emotion that can remain present with the community for as long as they need. The removal of these works can be as cathartic as their installation.
Tape In Institutions
We work in hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, and correctional facilities to bring the healing benefits of art-making to those communities. Drawing directly on walls using tape gives participants an opportunity for self expression, control over their environment, and a way to build connections with the institutions that they inhabit.
In hospitals we also do drawings on request in patients' rooms, hallways, and waiting rooms. Over the course of 17 years we made over 1,000 drawings in our local children's hospital.
Disaster Response
In the wake of natural disasters we use Tape Art for way-finding, decorating temporary housing and structures, and providing an activity for families during periods of waiting.
SUBMERGING – A small mural made on the side of a temporary building in the baseball field of an elementary school in Fukishima, Japan, home to a community displaced by an earthquake, tsunami, nuclear reactor meltdown.
HOUSTON UP – One of a series of murals made around Houston, Texas in the months after Hurricane Harvey caused widespread and devastating flooding.
Art Activism
In the wake of natural disasters we use Tape Art for way-finding, decorating temporary housing and structures, and providing an activity for families during periods of waiting.
HONG KONG BLOSSOMS – A community drawing done on the walls of a 1940s style building scheduled for demolition and redevelopment in an older neighborhood of Hong Kong. Residents who were facing eviction came together for one last peaceful protest before the building becomes a high-rise skyscraper.
HONORING HONAR – The Art Lords was a muralist collective in Kabul, Afghanistan whose members were forced to flee the country from the Taliban after the US withdrawal. The Art Lords lost over 300 murals to whitewashing, because their art shared pro-woman and pro-education messages. Five of these artists ended up in a refugee community in Brattleboro, Vermont. We worked with them to both memorialize and reimagine some of their favorite murals from home in the medium of tape on Brattleboro's walls so that they could share that work with their new neighbors.
Memorials
We create temporary memorials in times of personal, communal, or national tragedy.
HOPE MURAL – A drawing made at the heart of the Oklahoma City Bombing rescue operations. This mural was made by three artists drawing for 58 hours straight as rescue workers did shifts of search and recovery at the blast site.
THE NYC PROJECT – 500 life-sized firemen drawn as a rogue memorial on the streets of New York City after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. These are portraits of the firemen who died in the aftermath of the attack. Contact us if you would like to see documentation of the memorial figure drawn for your loved one or friend who passed away.
GLENN – A memorial made after the passing of a friend and an early Tape Art supporter depicting the last time Glenn left his office. This depiction was made on the wall of the factory that manufactured the tape we were using at the time where Glenn was the CEO. The drawing was based on verbal descriptions of memories of Glenn recounted to us by his employees.
