Landfill by James Mercer. Photo courtesy of Derek Mead

James Mercer, Landfill

Sculptor, visual and sound artist James Mercer has created a speculative project about waste management and garbage set in the year 2157. Presenting trash from both the present and future, a multitude of tiny stories are spread along the axis between real and fake, found and crafted, observed and speculated. This installation unites a host of objects scrounged from the street corners and basements of New York City with drawings and sculptures. A video plays on a "discarded" flatscreen inside the installation to provide more hints about this future world. This installation is on view on the third floor of Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, just a few steps from the Clocktower Radio studios. Mercer gives a short performance at 6:30 on June 8 during the Second Sundays festivities at Pioneer Works. James J.A. Mercer (born 1984, Boston, Massachusetts) is a visual, sound, and video artist living in Brooklyn, New York. His work crosses many mediums, including sprawling floor-to-ceiling installations, narrative animation, and constant maintenance, since 2005, of books filled with elaborate drawings. His science fiction animations MORRIS and Stargate SG-47719 were shown in 2012 and 2011 as part of DMTV in Los Angeles and Portland. Mercer exhibited at the Mountain Fold Gallery in 2010, and in 2009 he was a resident at AS220 in Providence, Rhode Island. In 2007 he received a BFA in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design. Since 2004 he has performed extensively throughout the United States as Mysterious House (formerly jamesamoeba), his solo noise project.

Second Sundays: James Mercer, Bradley Pitts, Lulu Miller, Redu NYC

On April 13, 2014 Clocktower Radio hosted interviews in its Pioneer Works studio as part of their monthly Second Sundays open house. This month features exhibitions, music, artist project studios, and the first lovely weekend night of the year. In this program you will hear conversations with: James Mercer - The sculptor and sound artist on the eve of his Clocktower-sponsored residency at Pioneer Works. Bradley Pitts - Pioneer Works resident art and aeronautics engineer discusses his micro-drone invasion of the space. Lulu Miller - Formerly of NPR's RadioLab, Miller discusses her work as a fiction writer. Amber Lasciak (REDU NYC) - Operator of a Red Hook establishment that creatively recycles furniture.