The subjects interviewed for Underground Rhode Island were selected, among many possibilities, for several reasons. The eldest were likely to have been part or the "hip" scene around jazz and the Celebrity Club of the 1950s. More than a few had a connection with AS220 and its circle, at some time in the past. And the youngest members have been active in the Rhode Island arts scene, in one way or another, during the last twenty years or so. Not all are either "lost" or "unknown"; some of them have long been prominent. And yet they represent a self-consciously offbeat take on the mainstream culture of Middle America. They are "underground" even when "overground," part of a world more recognizable to Allen Ginsberg (or Bruce Springsteen) than the people in the White House or Wall Street. And they were intriguing to the students who chose to interview them.
You may expect to find a photo--not necessarily from the recent past--a short biography, a recording of the subject's own voice, a verbatim transcript of the interview, and links to related materials. Not all these are present for each interview--some are still being gathered (or recovered)--but they definitely represent a sense of a life and creative work within that life.
Richard Fishman is a professor in the Visual Arts Department of Brown University, and a member of the Public Art Committee and the Creative Arts Council. He studied at Boston University, the Rhode Island School of Design, and Tulane University before coming to Brown in 1965.
Much of Fishman's work focuses on themes of connectivity, inter-dependence, and life-affirmation. His most recent work at Brown is the Elm Tree Project: art built around the wood, bark, branches, even the leaves of a 100-year old campus elm tree—affectionately known as Elmo—that had succumbed to Dutch elm disease. Under Fishman's supervision, students and visiting artists are transforming what is left of the tree into art. The tree lives on, a new cycle of life.
© 2005