On Display: March 17 – June 1, 2008
Reception: Saturday April 26, 3-5 pm

Space88, a new exhibit space in Silver Spring, is proud to present this examination of Tom Block's ongoing public art project, Cousins. Permanently installed just a few blocks away at the entrance to the Kennett Street Parking Garage (along the Eastern Ave. access), Block has also installed Cousins in bus shelters in Tempe, AZ (2005-2006) and taught workshops to college students about his process at American University (DC) and Hanover College (IN).

Cousins public art project uses art and text elements to echo the highest aspects of our American community, combining an
Eastern-inspired visual language with sayings from wisdom masters from a variety of ethnicities, religions, geographic regions and time periods. Fusing words representing the highest aspirations of humankind (taken from Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Lao Tzu, Simone Weil, the Buddha, etc.) with specially created paintings, Cousins transforms public venues into wisdom galleries, available to local citizens everyday. This project uses our country's diversity as an asset, by emphasizing not only the different cultures that make up our society, but also how they positively interrelate. This public art piece honors that aspect of our country that offers a uniquely livable and respectful community, mirroring the best that humanity can achieve.

The pieces featured in this exhibit come from two series, representing those on view in bus shelters in Tempe, Arizona, in 2005-2006, as well as outtakes from the series that has been permanently installed along the Kennett Street Art Wall, in Silver Spring, Maryland. He has included originals from both series, in addition to some of the actual prints that were installed in Tempe, AZ. He has proposed installing further panels, created from new images with different sayings, at the University of Oregon, Salem, OR; University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA; University of Maine, Orono, ME and in the City of Takoma Park, MD.