Brett Bloom

Brett Bloom (b. 1971) is an artist, activist, writer and publisher. His main work is collaborative with the group Temporary Services (Copenhagen/Chicago/Philadelphia). The group works together, writes about art, and publishes obsessively. They run Half Letter Press, a publishing imprint.

Bloom also collaborates with his wife, artist Bonnie Fortune, with whom he realised (among many other projects) the Powerless Powerpoint presentation, a hand-printed series of banners that form the Alphabets around early 21st century ecological concerns. The presentation was displayed and activated by a workshop held by Bloom as part of the Dissolving Frontiers group exhibition at HIAP Gallery Augusta in 2014. An overaching question in Bloom's work is how can we make the transition towards more livable futures? What would a post-carbon or post-fossil fuel based society look and feel like? Also, how are the current ways or organising our consumption-based ways of living forming our subjectivities and how could these be unlearned and 'de-colonised'?

As his contribution to the Frontiers project, Bloom organised a two-day workshop at HIAP under the title De-Industrializing Subjectivity, Restoring Senses and Telling New Stories (July 2014), where he took the participants outdoors for deep listening, slow walking and other sense-restoring exercises. This paved way for the 11-day Camp Breakdown Break down, held at Scottish Sculpture Workshop (SSW) in summer 2015. In the time of writing this, in July 2016, Bloom is continuing his studies in deep listening (a practice first articulated, embodied and shared by composer Pauline Oliveros) and organising Camp Breakdown Break down events, this time in the US, where he relocated in 2015 after living several years in Denmark.

Bloom's engaging and holistic practice constantly aims towards collective seeking for new ways to lead our lives in more ecologically sensible and individually and collectively more meaningful ways.

– Jenni Nurmenniemi, ​Curator, Frontiers in Retreat; HIAP

temporaryservices.org Twitter Facebook Instagram