Two exhibits opened over the weekend in Harvard Square, a new home to students from around the world and an old home to media and culture. Some nostalgia and creativity capture much about the place.
On Friday, the long-awaited Cambridge Kiosk opened with an archival news exhibit at the former site of Out of Town News. It’s surreal but exciting to finally visit the kiosk again.
The structure has been closed for five years, but it’s now filled with incredible photographs and news clippings from the David Bieber archives and the Cambridge Public Library’s newspaper collections, all celebrating the city’s alternative media history. Snapshots of Harvard Square in decades past are paired with headlines about antiwar protests and local elections from The Cambridge Phoenix, Boston Free Press and more.
The cherry on top is artist Anna Fubini’s delightful commissioned installation, “Paper Trails.” Hanging from the ceiling, a massive web of cotton yarn spun with wire and fishing line holds paper airplanes, each made from a news article commemorating a key moment in Out of Town’s 60-plus-year history. The airplanes shoot off in all directions, a playful yet touching nod to a space once known for selling international news. CultureHouse, the nonprofit running the space, will start stocking the kiosk with current issues of local newspapers, zines and more in the coming weeks, so long as the publications are free. Though the kiosk is no longer commercial, it will hopefully become a vibrant community hub once again.
Just down Massachusetts Avenue, a show at the Behind VA Shadows 25/8 artspace shines a spotlight on a group of emerging artists including Michael Ilisoi, Vivian Tran, Andrija Zekovic, Miguel Caba and An Hà, many of them recent Tufts graduates or current students. The exhibit focuses on artists’ senses of home and belonging in the wake of leaving to attend college in Boston. The artists are experts at making beautiful things that evoke those loaded concepts.
Caba’s sculptural paintings are a standout. Using technology such as laser cutters, CNC routers and 3D printers, he carves pieces of wood into curved sculptures and adds intricate, wallpaperlike paintings on top of them. His ability to produce excellent paintings on top of the irregular surfaces he creates is stunning. Likewise, An Hà is remarkably innovative with his materials, making skillful compositions from household dust that’s been arranged strategically in a found drawer.
Active spaces are the exception rather than the rule for Harvard Square, which has struggled to fill vacant storefronts. Where commercial pressures threaten a cultural wasteland, the kiosk and 25/8 artspace are a boon for local creatives.
Cambridge Kiosk, Zero Harvard Square, Cambridge
Behind VA Shadows 25/8 artspace, 2 Linden St., Harvard Square, Cambridge
Share your own 150-word appreciation for a piece of visual art or art happening with photo to editor@cambridgeday.com with the subject line “Behold.”
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)3 nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.