As my last few blog posts illustrate, my work this year has been about exploring self and the concept of identity or more simply, my work has been identity practice. I have looked at my self, my identity and the concepts of self and identity through practice, art making, writing, reading, theory and pedagogy. I am continuing this work here through the Sunday Dinner Project which is performative, conceptual and “socially engaged art”. This term has been coined by artist educator Pablo Helguera in his recently published book Education for Socially Engaged Art. His basic definition claims that SEA is “a social interaction that proclaims itself as art (p.1)”, but he acknowledges that “as a category of practice, [it] is still a working construct (p.2)”. Otherwise known in the contemporary art world as “social practice” this new terminology honours artwork like my Sunday Dinner project that is a “critically self-reflective dialogue with an engaged community (12)”.
One criticism that I anticipate is that these dinners are not open to the public as often (but not always) works of art considered social practice or SEA are. In brief response, my work here is about both connecting to and constructing community and while the dinners are not publicly open, the blog post, art exhibit and continued research, presentations and writing is. Working with a somewhat predetermined group (that included friends and family) was a conscious decision that I made after first trying out some public art “bubble disturbances” in London.
The Sunday Dinner Project and the bubble works are similar in that each honoured what is/was important to me at the times they were created. In London I attempted to relate to the public, while back home in Beacon, NY I am reconnecting with family and friends.
One criticism that I anticipate is that these dinners are not open to the public as often (but not always) works of art considered social practice or SEA are. In brief response, my work here is about both connecting to and constructing community and while the dinners are not publicly open, the blog post, art exhibit and continued research, presentations and writing is. Working with a somewhat predetermined group (that included friends and family) was a conscious decision that I made after first trying out some public art “bubble disturbances” in London.
The Sunday Dinner Project and the bubble works are similar in that each honoured what is/was important to me at the times they were created. In London I attempted to relate to the public, while back home in Beacon, NY I am reconnecting with family and friends.
Bubble Disturbances
The bubbles performances took place over the course of the last few months that I was living in London. At this time, I was feeling particularly disconnected to the people in this big city. The friends I had made through Goldsmiths all lived at least an hour's commute away and I would rarely see them outside of class sessions. The weather in London was a particularly grey and rainy spring. I performed these public joyful and playful disturbances of simply blowing bubbles in places where I travelled during my normal everyday commutes. First I blew them while waiting on the platform for the Overground train at my local station in Brockley. Instantly I received a great response and interrupted the normal interaction between myself and my fellow commuters. Instead of avoiding eye contact, many people smiled at me. This seemingly small engagement changed their and my experience of the commute. Smiles and laughter and even a few comments like “you've made my day” made my experience of city living so much more enjoyable. Inspired by this I blew bubbles out of my studio window where they flew out onto the busy sidewalk (pavement) and street. Finally I blew some over the escalators at London Bridge station where dozens of people came and went transferring from the Tube to the Overground train system. This work was partially inspired by the improv group Improv Everywhere, by the artist collaboration group casagrande and by the traveling “bad dancer” Matt Harding. Their work continues to inspire me as they explore universal themes of joy and play between strangers.
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