KEVIN ARROW

• Miami Way Theater (Southland Movie Theater) 12615 W. Dixie Highway, North Miami, FL

Sun Ra Day

Proposal
To contextualize his project, Arrow quotes John F. Szwed’s Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra: “In September 1989, Miami Vice star Philip Michael Thomas brought the Sun Ra Arkestra to his theater in North Miami. Thomas had come to know Sun Ra through some of the West Coast Arkestra dancers he knew when he was in Hair.  There was a ceremony of recognition, with the mayor of North Miami declaring it Sun Ra Day, and Thomas giving Sun Ra a small engraved pyramid” (367).  He also mentions that Sun Ra was subsequently interviewed for the Sun Sentinel, stating that “The real aim of this music is to coordinate the minds of the people into an intelligent reach for a better world, and an intelligent approach to the living future.” The artist thus proposes to design a commemorative poster to be applied to the stage door of the abandoned location of the old Miami Way Theatre in North Miami.

Biography
Kevin Arrow is a Miami Beach based artist and museum professional whose work is informed by archives, history, fictional narratives, and surprise. His work takes on various forms including, drawing, painting, 35mm slide presentations and time-based media projects, merging his interest in obsolete media, archival tendencies, the ephemeral object and humor. Through his works he is continually seeking to find the sublime within the mundane, and the mundane within the sublime experience, in addition to investigating the interchangeability of both.