Today, the Project for Empty Space organization is presenting the work of their fall season artist in residence, Alex Callender. Together, the non-profit arts organization and Callender aim to bring engaging public artwork to the street and in this case, walls of the city to promote awareness and discussion of environmental issues. If you are walking around the Lower East Side and happen upon a tiny migration of deer figures along the wall, you have found Alex Callender's piece. The large scale installation on 181 Stanton Street depicts a number of deer families traveling along the urban landscape. Based in an abandoned, barren lot, they could also be seen as roaming for greener pastures.

Callender’s interest in deer lies in their unique relationship to our environmental development. Deer population is directly affected by the fluctuation of our urban development and expansion. Oftentimes herds are displaced and pushed to our environmental periphery. Callender uses deer to symbolize the worldwide issue of habitats disappearing due to climate change, urbanization, and pollution caused by humans. This crisis also affects polar and forest animals as well as the thousands of sea creatures that are effected by oil spills.

Callender is also spiritually connected to deer, saying “…deer are described mythologically as transient creatures that can be followed by humans and hunters to where the realm of life meets the world of the dead.” There is a very human aspect to her symbolism, echoing the urban migration and loss of people in China caused by nuclear pollution.

Project for Empty Space is an organization dedicated to public education and engagement through art. Founded by Meenakshi Thirukode and Jasmine Wahi, the project finds unused or abandoned walls and spaces to express social and environmental concerns and provoke conversation.

Callender’s narrative is multi-dimensional, as the very use of an abandoned space reflects our hastiness towards development, often digging up the earth and pushing animals out of their habitats to later abandon the project for something else. Her installation may also be a symbol of change that is difficult to ignore: deer once occupied this space and now we do. She begs the question, what will happen in the future?

The Project for Empty Space opening of Alex Callender’s work will be from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. today at 181 Stanton Street and will be available for the public for the rest of the fall season.

+ Project for Empty Space