About

Attendance Details

Dates: Thursday, April 22 (Earth Day) — Sunday, June 27, 2021
Gallery Hours (subject to change): Thursday/Friday from 4-8pm and Saturday/Sunday from 12-6pm
Location: Sandlot Southeast (Get Directions)
Hosted by Sandlot Southeast, in partnership with MRP Realty
Access the Free Virtual Gallery Tour featuring stories from Andy Yoder

Exhibit and Artist Information

Thirty years ago, five shipping containers fell off a freighter during a storm, dumping 61,820 Nikes into the Pacific — an incident known as “The Great Shoe Spill of 1990.” As the shoes washed ashore on the coast of Oregon and Washington, a network of beachcombers collected, washed, and resold them.

Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer connected with this network to create data leading to an important study monitoring the ocean’s currents. It led to huge interest from the news media, including appearances by Dr. Ebbesmeyer on late-night TV shows. Nike embraced his work and nicknamed him “Dr. Ocean,” inviting him to speak to employees.

Yoder learned about this incident while researching ideas for his installation in CulturalDC’s Mobile Art Gallery, which is created out of a repurposed shipping container. The installation is comprised of over 220 sneakers constructed from recycled materials like boxes, bags, and posters. Each shoe is a version of the Nike’s iconic Jordan 5 sneaker, a shoe that was introduced in 1990, the same year as the spill.

The installation examines the sneakerhead culture and brings attention to the impact of capitalist consumer culture on our environment.

Andy Yoder is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Yoder uses domestic objects as the common denominators of our personal environment. Altering them is a way of questioning the attitudes, fears and unwritten rules which have formed that environment and our behavior within it.

CulturalDC supports innovative artists across all disciplines and makes their work accessible to diverse audiences. We provide unconventional space for relevant and challenging work that is essential to nurturing vibrant urban communities. CulturalDC has made a name for itself in providing a platform for bold contemporary artists to interact with audiences in thought-provoking ways. Previous exhibitions include “Ivanka Vacuuming” by Jennifer Rubell, “THIS IS NOT A DRILL” by Jefferson Pinder, and “Mighty, Mighty” by Devan Shimoyama. CulturalDC owns Source Theatre, and a 40-ft shipping container transformed into a Mobile Art Gallery. In addition to presenting, CulturalDC has brokered more than 350,000 square feet of artist space since 1998, including the Arts Walk at Monroe Street Market, Atlas Performing Arts Center, GALA Hispanic Theatre, Source Theatre and Woolly Mammoth Theatre. Visit www.culturaldc.org; Facebook: CulturalDC; Instagram: @cultural_dc; or Twitter: Cultural_DC.

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