Request for Clarification on Research and Service:

This is a letter written in response to questions posed by my tenure and promotion peer review committee in October 2017. It is reproduced here to allow me to provide audio/visual documentation.

In my presentation to the Research to Rehab Town Hall event (2016 College Behavioral and Emotional Health Institute at VCU) I spoke about the unique interdisciplinary partnership that I forged between the VCU School of the Arts and the Collegiate Recovery community, again emphasising the role that conceptually based interactive artworks could play in support of persons in long term recovery. My presentation to, and interactions with, national recovery researchers helped shape and expand the scope of my solo exhibitions/installations later that year at 1708 Gallery in Richmond and at the Liverpool Biennial Fringe in Liverpool UK. My cross disciplinary practice demands my direct engagement with venues/researchers/artists both in and outside of traditional art venues. On the surface, this engagement may appear to blur the lines between my research and service as it relates to my tenure and promotion Curriculum Vitae. I am very appreciative of this opportunity to further clarify these distinctions, however, I interpret all of these lectures as central to my research practice.

For example my Free Ice Water project was started in the Summer of 2013 which included pop-up events at the the University of Iowa, and the Tang Museum at Skidmore College. It wasn’t until the Spring of 2015 that the piece took on its current form, which evolved from a project about conversations over ice water with me as the artist, to creating time/space for other people to have conversations on their own. The Free Ice Water project was first installed in the windows of the Institute for Contemporary Art offices at VCU and then in a more realized version as part of a curated, group exhibition at Mixed Greens Gallery in NYC in 2015. The project has taken many forms including providing water and conversation during the UCI bike race, hosting the Free Ice Water Recovery Ride (supported by a Culture Works grant), the inclusion of the project in Washington DC’s Figment Festival and in 2016 as part of the Liverpool Biennial Fringe. The project is continuing on into 2018 when a distinct location specific iteration of Free Ice Water will be featured as part of my Tate Exchange project at the Tate Modern in London.

Here is an annotated timeline of my significant research practice to date since accepting my appointment to VCUarts in 2013.

2) Live IKEA - 2013

• Live IKEA was a performance/exhibition at the IKEA Tampines in Singapore in April 2013. My artistic collaborator, Swedish anthropologist Dr. Johan Lindquist, and I moved into the first model apartment on the main showroom and transformed it into a fully functioning portrait studio using only materials available within the store itself. We used rugs for backdrops, desk lamps and paper shades for studio lighting, and created a photographic softbox light using a white patio sun umbrella. Johan and I lived in the store for three days making portraits of shoppers and asking them to track themselves as they navigated through the store on tabletop maps of the store. We met people who planned to spend the day there and people who couldn’t wait to get to the exit.

3) Free Ice Water - 2013 - Current

• Free Ice Water is a relational art/ social practice project comprised of the sharing of ice water in a blue Ball mason jar, one-on-one conversation and a memorial token (form variable). The project paradoxically deploys networked connectivity to encourage people to disconnect and engage in real conversation around difficult subjects. Free Ice Water transfigures this personal and social act into a process of experiential art-making in which sharing ice water acts as an agent of connection and conversation. As stated above Free Ice Water has evolved over multiple iterations to include performance events with more that 60 conversants at a time, gallery installations and site specific events nationally and internationally.

4) Recovery Roast Coffee Project - 2016 - Current

• The Recovery Roast Coffee Project is a direct service component to my research practice and comes out of my own experience as a person in recovery and my service work with students in collegiate recovery programs nationwide. Recovery Roast Coffee is a custom roasted coffee whose flavor profile is determined by local populations of persons in long term recovery. Working with site-specific, local artisan coffee roasters, Recovery Roast introduces local recovery communities to the rich history of coffee and the complexities of roasting, tasting and preparation options. Recovery Roast served as the inspiration for the Free Hot Coffee Bike (see 7.) Each listed event generates a custom roasted coffee product for ongoing use by the local recovery community.

7) Free Hot Coffee Bike - 2016 - Current

• The Free Hot Coffee Bike was built during the Fifty/Fifty exhibition at 1708 Gallery and is used on a regular basis by VCU’s Collegiate Recovery Community. It is a physical extension of the my Recovery Roast project and I consider it to be a completed project, which is in active use and circulation. The Free Hot Coffee Bike radiates out into the community with a pop-up pour over coffee station where the general public can engage with with people in long term recovery and their allies, and learn about the project, over free hot cups of “Recovery Roast” coffee. The Free Hot Coffee bike has been deployed more that fifty times for local and regional events, including a visit with Governor Terry McAuliffe at the State Capital of Virginia. A new Free Hot Coffee bike will be built as part of the Fifty/Fifty Program at the Tate Exchange on behalf of Recovery Connections, for use in developing collegiate recovery programs across the UK.

The Third Year Review was completed in December of 2014, at which point I had not served on any MFA committees at VCUarts. They must have been referring to my previous academic service at the University of Iowa. At VCUarts I have primarily served on MFA committees of Photo + Film graduate students pursuing socially engaged, non photographic projects in line with my general research practice. Additionally, I have supervised graduate independent studies in the MATX and MFA in Creative Writing programs.

Please let me know if the committee has any additional questions or concerns.

Warm regards,

John D. Freyer