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Dunedin Center Plans PODS Decorating Event

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By Mark  Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: January 12, 2008

DUNEDIN, Fla. - DUNEDIN, Fla. - It should not be difficult for artists participating in the Dunedin Fine Art Center's latest cutting-edge exhibition to contain themselves.

Later this month, 10 artists participating in "Contain It – A Multimedia Installation Fest" will create a scene within a storage unit from the Clearwater-based company Portable On-Demand Storage – aka PODS.

Kaya Parwanicka, the art center's assistant curator, who created DFAC's award-winning annual Wearable Art Fashion Show, said seeing a show in South Florida inspired her to launch the local show.

As part of the annual Art Basel Miami Beach show, the sorts of large shipping containers that get stacked high on decks of ocean-going transport vessels are turned into art works.

Parwanicka believes a localized version of such a show could become a winter favorite at DFAC.

During "Contain It," 10 of the PODS storage units will set up in the museum's parking area and handed over to local artists.

Artists can work in various media but cannot draw on the walls of the unit or change it in any way.

The idea is to have someone step inside each POD and feel transported into the artist's imagination, Parwanicka said.

Denis Gaston, of the Denis Gaston Art Studio, on Douglas Avenue, says Parwanicka and Kelli Rule Clark, the DFAC development coordinator, deserve credit for staging innovative exhibitions such as "Contain It" and the Wearable Art Fashion Show.

They keep finding new ways to display art so exhibitions do not become stale or mundane, he said.

In decorating his PODS unit, Gaston said, he will make a statement with one light source that will serve as a "guiding light illuminating from within."

Gaston was one of the artists who lost a large number of works during last month's Imago Art Collective fire in Dunedin, which has been classified as arson.

Shane Hoffman, a St. Petersburg-based artist, said he plans to create an outdoor environment within the narrow and deep PODS container. A sculptor, Hoffman said he has a tree, giant bird and other amenities ready to install.

Container shows are catching on in artists colonies such as Miami and this local exhibition should be well received, he said.

The artists will transform the PODS on Monday, Jan. 21. Then a special unveiling will take place at 8 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 25, at the Dunedin Fine Art Center, in Highlander Park.

The bash will include a disc jockey and performance art by John Kilduff, the Los Angeles-based host of "Let's Paint TV," which is seen via cable access and the Internet. John Kilduff likes to "throw down paint" while exercising.

Admission to the evening event is $10 a person.

On Saturday the PODS will be open for a free inspection during regular hours from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

In addition to Gaston and Hoffman, the artists scheduled to take part in "Contain It" are: Maria Saraceno, Daniel Mrgan, Maria Licodo, Nancy Cervenka, Marina Williams, Noah Deledda, Michael Carpenter and the artist known only as Kyle.

On Saturday, everyone is invited to see how the inside of each PODS has been specially transformed. The event could become a yearly exhibition at the Fine Art Center, she said.

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