Art Installation Opening: Leslie Dreyer's “Reclaim Disrupt”
Updates
Read the Revisited post of this event.
Original Post
In this new performative intervention project, artist Leslie Dreyer delves into the causes and ramifications of San Francisco's hyper gentrification, a phenomenon that is currently spreading throughout the greater Bay Area.
This fall, Leslie launched the project at Tech Crunch's Disrupt conference, clad in server attire but vending quite unusual fare -- bricks from a San Francisco demolition site. Each brick was etched with stories of individuals or establishments displaced during the current tech boom or with visions for a city in which people, regardless of race/class/gender, are able to live and participate.
By inviting viewers to consider other meanings of "disrupt", the tech industry's biggest buzzword, Leslie is attempting to redirect the conversation to those whose lives and livelihoods are being destroyed by "disruptive innovation." The ongoing project will resurface at different locations around the Bay and its growing documentation and archive of collected stories will be on display at the Berkeley Center for New Media Commons.
Leslie is an MFA candidate in Art Practice at UC Berkeley. She is an interdisciplinary artist and organizer who creates sculptural works, installations and performance/interventions from within a movement demanding a right to the city and an end to the commodification of our public and private lives.