INDEPENDENT INTERVENTIONS
1. Food and Medication
My first public intervention is based on the work of Erwin Wurm’s “One Minute Sculptures.” In watching him being interviewed, something that really stuck with me was hearing him talk about his interest in approaching serious issues with humor. He also mentions the importance of creating a “global vernacular,” where art is more accessible and allows one to find one’s own place in the world. I found this particularly pertinent because after dealing with (mental) illness for so many years, I’ve found that sometimes, you just have to laugh at yourself or find some way to lighten up what is generally taken quite seriously. I also think that, while these images and this concept has a particularly personal meaning for me, having to haven taken medication for some sort of illness at one time or another is something that most people can probably relate to on some level.
I chose to sit at a café table located on the sidewalk out front. After sitting there for a little while - holding my fork and staring at my bowl of pill bottles (which could have been interpreted in a number of different ways) – as people walked by, I asked a woman to take a picture for me.
2. Grocery Store Mix-up
My second public intervention was based on Gabriel Orozco’s “Of Cats and Watermelons,” where the artist moved around everyday objects to make a statement. I decided to play around with a few basic concepts – issues of health and gender. I found a book in the health section that supposedly deals with “natural” methods of healing. I left a bunch of children’s books in that area, because I thought that occasionally taking a momentary break from the adult world could be “healing.” I also noticed that the magazine section was broken up into publications directed towards men and those directed towards women. In response, I placed some Disney Princess and Barbie books throughout the magazines directed towards men, and some stereotypically male interest comic books throughout the home and garden section, featuring topics such as knitting, quilting, interior decorating and so on. Lastly, I put magazines encouraging weight loss throughout the “little girl” section, since body image is something that even really young girls are concerned about.
As a last "gender commentary", I placed female hair products among those stating they were specifically for men. When I was moving books around, I could tell that people were aware of me, but weren’t getting close enough to really see what I was doing. Since there was nothing destructive about a little product rearrangement, I left things where I put them so that more people might take note.
3. Dancing in the Street (Lightening up!)
My last public intervention tried to play off of the Jan Family. In an interview, they mentioned their interest in how humans behave as a group, and directed people to engage in simple actions as a kind of study. They included things that were competitive – such as asking someone to hang onto a tree for as long as they could, or instructing them to stare through a window until someone else stared back at them - as ways of studying human interaction/competition. I wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of doing anything that might cause any sort of conflict, so my idea was to leave a sign in a public place with an instruction - “Take a moment to stop – now dance!” and document the results. I was also determined to be discreet and not approach people directly because I wanted to really see what would happen.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to capture the more “successful” moments because I was trying to be so discreet. The majority of those “responding” to the sign didn’t do much other than read it and very few did what it said. About 3 people/groups actually did any sort of “dance” after reading the sign – an old man walking by himself, a couple in their 20’s, and two men who also appeared to be in their late 20’s. Most people, however, didn’t even notice it was there at all, which I thought was surprising since it was right in the middle of the sidewalk. I even tried a number of different locations along NW 23rd street.
I actually think my favorite response was on the corner of 23rd and Lovejoy. Someone walked into a bar and came back out with a friend of his to show him and comment on it – “Look at that! Did you see that sign out there? It says to dance…there was another one up on Northrop…did you see that one?” (There was only one actual sign, I just kept moving it around.) Even though neither of the men followed the “instruction,” I found the act of even just pointing the sign out to another person as also illustrative of public group behavior since it was drawing attention to something unusual or unexpected. One of the men actually adjusted the sign before they both went back inside.
I tried to see if the sign was still there as I sprinted down the street to catch the bus about an hour later, but it seemed to have been removed.
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