AFFECTS OF GRAVITY: Gravitron at the Topsfield Fair Oct. 2-4

Experience anti-gravity art at the Topsfield Fair in October 2009!

Affects of Gravity

October 2-4th

Topsfield Agriculture Fair, Topsfield, MA

Join artist Andi Sutton and poet Chris Tonelli for Affects of Gravity a sound installation that will take place on a Gravitron amusement park ride at the Topsfield Fair in Topsfield, MA, on Oct. 2 – 4th.

When: Friday, October 2 (4-10 PM)

Saturday, October 3 & Sunday, October 4th, 2009 (10 AM - 10 PM)

In this collaborative intervention, Sutton and Tonelli present a sound installation of poetry and gravity experienced while riding the centripetal-force-induced anti-gravity amusement park ride, the Gravitron. This project, sponsored by the Council for the Arts at MIT, brings riders into the metaphoric world of the Gravitron through a soundscape of amusement park field recordings and poems narrated by the Gravitron itself – stories of the Midway, its riders, and seasonal cyclical labor. The poems, selections from Tonelli’s forthcoming chapbook For People Who Like Gravity And Other People (Rope-a-Dope Press 2010), draw upon this age-old symbol of American entertainment and consumer distraction. The Gravitron asserts the trapped cycle of its existence and the isolation that occurs when the ride, the amusement, and the distraction, finally stops.

Get on… Lean against the wall…

Ticket information and transportation

RSVP to reserve a free ticket for the Gravitron and discounted entry to the Topsfield Fair ($8) on October 2nd, 3rd, or 4th.

A free, round-trip bus ride, departing from Kendall Square, Cambridge, is available on Saturday, Oct. 3rd along with the Gravitron and discounted Topsfield Fair tickets. Space is limited – RSVP soon to reserve a spot. The last day to RSVP is September 25th.

For tickets and/or a spot on the bus, contact Andi Sutton (andi.sutton@gmail.com)


Collaborative team:

Andi Sutton is an artist whose work explores the ways performance art methodology can be used to create alternative models for community and social engagement. She pursues an interdisciplinary collaborative art practice and is involved in the National Bitter Melon Council (www.bittermelon.org), Platform2: Art and Social Engagmeent (http://www.janemarsching.com/platform2/), among others. Her work has appeared locally and internationally at art centers, museums, public venues, in art and street contexts, on curious tongues and inside hungry bellies.

Chris Tonelli is the author of four chapbooks, most recently No Theater (Brave Men Press, 2009). His first full-length collection, The Trees Around, will be out in April from BIRDS, LLC. He teaches at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC where he lives with his wife Allison.


Special thanks to the Topsfield Fair (http://www.topsfieldfair.org/), running from October 2 – 12th, 2009, and Midway ride distribution company Fiesta Shows (http://www.fiestashows.com/), and Rope-a-Dope press (http://rope-a-dope-press.blogspot.com/) for their collaboration.

Funded by the Council for the Arts at MIT.