A post-election community-response installation by Jessica Maffia in the Plus/Space.

On View: February 20 to 26, 2017
Hours: Monday to Sunday, 1 - 8pm

The day after the Presidential Elections, while listening to Democracy Now, Maffia got the idea to ask everyone she knows the question: “what do we do now?” and record their answers. Reaching out to and connecting with friends, family, and community in the immediate aftermath of the election was strengthening. One friend shared a German children’s song with her inspiring the birth of the project:

“Lantern, lantern stay alive. It’s dark outside but my light keeps shining.”

Maffia wrote 150 people’s responses to the question “what do we do now” on lanterns, each lit with LED tea-lights, creating an installation that is suspended from the ceiling. Some lanterns are left blank and visitors are encourage to write down their own response.

This will be the fourth installation of Lanterns for Peace. The first two were exhibited in November 2016 in Taos, New Mexico at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, where Maffia was artist in resident for three months, and at the Taos town plaza. During the inauguration, she exhibited the lanterns at 3-Squared Gallery in Chelsea, NY.