Re-Source

Stacks of used plywood, steel studs and pipes, obsolete electronics, broken heaters, and unidentified cables. Boxes with dusty newsprints and stationary, excess light bulbs and fluorescent tube lights, tripod stands, wheels, vinyl banners, carpets, tarps, and sandbags. Leftover paint, glue and epoxy, plastic bags full of nails, screws, hinges and L-brackets, buckets of cleaning supplies, and more.

Throughout the years – decades even – Storefront has accumulated these and many other objects, tools, materials, and equipment. They took root over time, filling every drawer and corner, and growing exponentially with the perhaps unrealistic expectation that they would be reused in upcoming projects.

Now, as a global pandemic demands us all to realign our goals and reimagine our near- and long-term futures, the need for processes of renewal is clear. At Storefront, we take this opportunity to shed old ways of doing and being, and to affirm the need to embrace methods that are ever more thoughtful, responsible, and empathetic.

Re-Source, our first in-person exhibition since the lockdown, is the beginning of what’s to come. Drawing upon our material and social resources, the exhibition invites 26 architects and designers who have worked with Storefront in its recent history to create new works with leftover and surplus items from our office, gallery, and storage spaces. Through this process, we seek to give new life to the things we hold, and to open up space that is crucial for new ways of working, making, and thinking.

At a time when anxiety and opportunity collide, Re-Source also doubles as a fundraising initiative to replace crucial financial resources lost due to the cancelation of Storefront’s annual Spring Benefit. The exhibition is presented as part of our interim program, On Maintenance, which introduces an interjection and a moment of pause in our previously scheduled programming to address the many aspects of maintenance, exploring what it means to both sustain and rehaul our spaces, our social and political systems, and our bodies and minds.