September 2 – October 18
Opening Reception: Friday, September 4, 7 – 9 p.m.
VisArts, 155 Gibbs Street, Rockville, MD 20850
Explore the invisible sites, contradictory features and historical spirits embedded in downtown Rockville. Radical walking tours and a gallery installation of banners, videos and maps stitch together an array of new and old buildings, urban and suburban places, and psychically – charged, poetic sites. New Public Sites – The Ragged Edge of Rockville is part of Come Back to Rockville!, a two-person, participatory art project with Naoko Wowsugi, curated by Laura Roulet and sponsored by VisArts. Click here for the full press release.
As the historic seat of Montgomery County turned booming DC suburb, Rockville stands as an example par excellence of Sub/Urban Ambiguity: “Cities and suburbs posing as enigmas of one another.” The title of the project is inspired by a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, in which the narrator reflects on how his former home in the “Middle West seems like the ragged edge of the universe now”. Tour activities include making paper rubbings and collecting Shards of Site while engaging memorials of literary tribute and contested Civil War histories. Along the way, you will explore newly created public spaces aspiring to urban authenticity while beholding suburban voids overturning in speculative wait.
Click here for more info and a self-guided
tour using the interactive map web app
Free printed maps will be available at
VisArts and the Rockville Public Library
Join a free a walking tour with
public artist Graham Coreil-Allen
September 5, 2-4pm
September 27, 3-5pm*
October 17, 4-6pm
All tours meet at VisArts:
155 Gibbs Street, Rockville, MD 20850
*Before the 3pm tour, be sure to check out VisArt’s F.E.A.S.T. brunch artist project fundraiser happening from 11:30am-2:30pm. Click here for more info and tickets.
