AGITATORS COLLECTIVE: May 2008

Agitators Collective • May 2008
Jersey City, New Jersey, (An empty lot, Pacific and Carteret Avenues.)

A cheap Indian spice
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Agitators
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Jersey City Sunshine

Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae which is native to tropical South Asia. It needs temperatures between 20 and 30 deg. C. and a considerable amount of annual rainfall to thrive. Plants are gathered annually for their rhizomes, and re-seeded from some of those rhizomes in the following season.

It is also often misspelled (or pronounced) as tumeric. It is also known as kunyit or haldi in some Asian countries[2].

Its rhizomes are boiled for several hours and then dried in hot ovens, after which they are ground into a deep orange-yellow powder commonly used as a spice in curries and other South Asian cuisine, for dyeing, and to impart color to mustard condiments. Its active ingredient is curcumin and it has an earthy, bitter, peppery flavor and has a mustardy smell.

Mission

Agitators Collective creates site-related installations in Jersey City and its immediate vicinity. We choose urban locales that are under threat of over-development and gentrification, and or have fallen into neglect and disrepair.

Ideas are freely shared and labor evenly distributed in Agitators Collective. We specifically choose materials and objects that capture the culture of the community, such as candy from the corner bodega, Christmas lights and balloons from a 99 cent store, or found objects taken directly from the street.

Installations range from 8,000 marshmallow peeps on the stairwell of a city park, a written wall mural made up of thirty languages, to a 100-foot circle in turmeric in a parking lot.

Agitators Collective seeks to involve the public in our installations. The public's immediate reactions are incorporated into the work. These types of interactions directly influence and inspire our future projects.