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SHELTER IN
PLATES
 
 
MIKE MANDEL
CHANTAL ZAKARI
​
2013

Six stoneware 10.5 inch plates  
fabricated from digitally printed four-color decals, transferred to the plate and kiln fired

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Shelter in Plates is in the collection of The Addisson Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy, Yale Museum and the Fitchburg Art Museum.

Collector's Edition Box includes:

 

- six stoneware plates

- 8x10 digital print of the artists' backyard being searched

- letter from the artists' attorney

to the Watertown Police Chief in response to police intimidation about this project

 

all in a linen covered box

Send us an email to see the box.

Collector's Edition
INTRODUCTION

This series of commemorative plates recognizes the unprecedented lockdown of thousands of Watertown residents, including we, the artists, who were ordered to shelter in place, during the April 19, 2013 manhunt for the last Boston Marathon bomber. Confronted with military-style troops searching our homes and surround- ings, for sixteen hours families were ordered inside, police stationed at corners and half-way points on every street. No cars were allowed into the search zone. No one was allowed outdoors. We watched through our windows while SWAT teams me- thodically searched every yard, under porches, and in some areas inside homes, as well. These plates commemorate the people of Watertown living under siege.

 

In the early morning on April 19, 2013 Governor Deval Patrick ordered residents of Watertown and surrounding cities and towns to “shelter-in-place,” to stay inside their homes initiating a manhunt for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The previous night Tsarnaev’s brother Tamerlan had been killed in a shootout with police in Watertown, but the younger brother eluded capture and escaped, abandoning his car a few blocks away from the shoot-out.

 

A vast military style manhunt was soon underway, one of the largest in the history of the United States. A twenty block area of Watertown was cordoned off by thousands of police, and numerous SWAT teams were ordered to search every home in this target area. For an entire day and into the evening Watertown residents stayed indoors, watching out windows as tanks and heavily armed soldiers went door to door. At 6 PM, having failed to find Tsarnaev, Governor Patrick lifted the shelter- in-place order and Watertown residents were able to come outside to ponder whether the bombing suspect had escaped the area or perhaps might still be hiding nearby. An hour and a half later a Watertown resident who lived inside the search area walked into his backyard and noticed that the cover on his boat was loose. Looking under the tarp he discovered Dzhokhar Tsarnaev alive, but lying in a pool of blood, and notified police. The ordeal had finally ended.

 

During the course of the lockdown many Watertown residents were ordered out of their homes without the authority of a search warrant, strip searched, and taken into police custody. Shelter in Plates is a response to the extreme militarization of the police action, on April 19, 2013.

 

Online sale of the plates through shopify took place between December 1, 2013 to January 15, 2014. Following the announcement of the online store, the Police Chief of Watertown, Edward Deveau, called the artists’ employer, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in an attempt to stop the project.

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Plates Collection
PLATE COLLECTION
Exhibitions
EXHIBITIONS
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2018

Addison Gallery of American Art, Gun Country, Andover, MA 

Fitchburg Art Museum, Selections from the Permanent Collection, Fitchburg, MA

2017

Aidekman Arts Center, Tufts University, Violence Transformed: Under Siege, Medford MA 

Fotodoks 2017 ME : WE - Lothringer13 Halle & Rroom, Munich, Germany
Center for Book Arts NY, Chantal Zakari: Narratives of Conflict, New York, NY
Arte Laguna 2017, Venice Arsenale, Venice, Italy

2016

FotoFocus Cincinnati, Ruthe G. Pearlman Gallery

Krakow Photomonth 2016, Krakow, Poland - curated by Lars Willumeit and Iris Sikking 

2014

Miller & Yezerski Gallery, Shelter in Plates (solo show), Boston MA

Barbara & Steven Grossman Gallery SMFA, SMFA Faculty Sabbatical Show - Boston MA

2013

Temporary public art installation of The Shelter-in-Plates Collection on shopify 

addison gallery of american art

andover, MA  |  gun country, 2018

Press & Reviews
PRESS, REVIEWS & INTERVIEWS
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY 

Images Objects Archives: The Multiple Lives of Photographs 

organized by Andy Grundberg and Kate Addleman-Frankel, curator of Photography at Cornell

March 22, 2019 

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IMPROPER BOSTONIAN Q&A with Stephanie Sparling Williams by Sarah Hagman, March 9, 2018

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CHRISTOPHER VOLPE BLOG Shelter in Plates, March 5, 2018

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LE MONDE A Cracovie, la photo se joue de la crise by Claire Guillot, June 5, 2016

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CO LAB: COLLABORATIVE DESIGN SURVEY by Herman, Shelley, Lupton, Phillips
BIS Publishers, 2015, Mandel + Zakari 

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WGBH NEWS Protesting With Plates: A Response to the Watertown Manhunt, Phillip Martin 

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WGBH TV NEWS Greater Boston with Emily Rooney, April 17, 201

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