Utopia Sounds Like a Good Idea- by Josh Duttweiler

Date and Time

Fri, Jan 17, 2025 - Fri, Feb 28, 2025 6pm - 10pm

Location

Details

In 1966, the City of Corpus Christi received a commissioned report from Trinity Testing Laboratories that proposed an off-shore highway and a series of man-made islands along the Corpus Christi Bay. The concept development aimed to create new spaces for recreation, residency, and tourism. Looking out into the bay, today, it’s hard to imagine this alternate future–a utopian vision of Corpus Christi as a highway-tourism-paradise. The project never developed beyond the proposal phase, and the concept maps and renderings became artifacts that represent yet another attempt to improve the city’s infrastructure.
In the shadow of one of the largest U.S. bridge projects, now the city’s identity shifts once more. Its coastal community, in a limbo between pride for the land’s beauty and the impact of industrial development projects on the bay’s ecology, is on a radical precipice of economic and environmental realities. The increasing petrochemical production along with population migration trends to warmer climates are pushing our fragile ecosystem past the tipping point.
Utopia Sounds Like a Good Idea, encourages viewers to follow a path through the gallery–reminiscent of the proposed 1966 highway route–and stop at each piece [island] and consider how top-down government and industry decisions made in the past create potential futures of this region. Whether through the building of bridges or walls, ask yourself, who’s utopia are we constructing? Who’s dystopia? Who do we tie the stories of disenfranchisement, dislocation and dissolution to? What future are we endorsing with our actions or lack thereof?
Consider what opportunities exist to shape our communities, protect beauty, and foster dreams for ourselves, our community, and our future generations.

Joshua Duttweiler is a designer, artist, and educator whose multi-disciplinary practice spans personal, collaborative, and client-based projects. His work is deeply rooted in social justice, community building, and critically explores recorded histories and constructed societal systems to amplify new voices. Joshua regularly exhibits his work both nationally and internationally.
Joshua holds a BFA in Applied Design and Visual Communication from Houghton University and an MFA in Graphic Design from Boston University. He currently resides in Texas where he is an Assistant Professor of Communication Design at Texas State University. As an educator, he seeks to empower students to convey perspectives for change in communities through visual creations.
@josh_dutt_design
www.JoshuaDuttweiler.com

**** Join us for an artist reception Febrauary 7th, 6-10 pm ****