art in general performance proposal
{In the performance and installation “Every Piece of Clothing I Own (Starting Over)”, I would like to wash my clothing, by hand, every morning during rush hour in the Project Space on Walker Street, for one month. At this moment I am planning doing so either in a large basin or house paint bucket. Afterword, I will hang each piece on clotheslines above me, allowing the clothing to drip-dry. By performing this mundane, antiquated activity, I hope to create a repentance ritual demystifing the process of art-making.
Like much of my other work, the performance is centered around aspects of one’s identity which are directly tied to a person’s posessions, and the loss of that identity once one is no longer surrounded by them. Through the repeated washing of my clothing, I will allow the viewing public to observe both myself and many of the things I have collected, yet will be doing so at the expense of the very items I am putting on display. Modern day clothing has not, for the most part, been built to withstand much stress. Many fabrics, after getting wet, will shrink in ways which often feel odd and randomn, colors tend to begin fading after only a few washes, and the daily grating of the washboard against cotton will undoubtedly create holes in many of my garments within the first week. By the end of the month I am fairly certain that many of my favorite pieces will be left in tatters. Though hand washing clothing is nowhere near as effective as washing machines, I feel confident in assuming that by the end of the month I will be washing immaculate clothes. As the days progress, it will become all the more obvious that I am washing clothing for the sake of ritual, not for the sake of cleanliness. After the process of washing my clothes has been completed for the day, I will leave the gallery, allowing the wet garments to be viewed by those passing through. As the clotheslines will extend beyond the top of the windows and into the ceiling, it is feasible that as viewers peer into the windows they will be able to look up into multiple teirs of my drying socks, underwear and t-shirts.
When deciding how to work with the space at Art In General, I was initially drawn to it’s location, and a desire to create a dialouge with the performance outside the confines of the white cube. Being so close to Chinatown, I couldn’t help but think of riding the Q train over the Manhattan Bridge into brooklyn, of the intimacy of seeing other people’s laundry drying on their balconies. It brings to mind James Stewart in Rear Window, voueristically memorizing all of his neighbor’s schedules from their adjoining backyards. I was also heavily influenced by the queering of everyday objects in the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and the solemn, ephemeral quality of his candy sculptures. Most importantly, I am interested in the use of banal, seemingly mundane actions in the work of Vito Acconci and Bruce Nauman.}
it's 14 words longer than the maximum allowed. someone help me make this 500 words! i'm super pumped about this performance idea! find extraneous phrases and help me edit them out! action words people, action words!
Like much of my other work, the performance is centered around aspects of one’s identity which are directly tied to a person’s posessions, and the loss of that identity once one is no longer surrounded by them. Through the repeated washing of my clothing, I will allow the viewing public to observe both myself and many of the things I have collected, yet will be doing so at the expense of the very items I am putting on display. Modern day clothing has not, for the most part, been built to withstand much stress. Many fabrics, after getting wet, will shrink in ways which often feel odd and randomn, colors tend to begin fading after only a few washes, and the daily grating of the washboard against cotton will undoubtedly create holes in many of my garments within the first week. By the end of the month I am fairly certain that many of my favorite pieces will be left in tatters. Though hand washing clothing is nowhere near as effective as washing machines, I feel confident in assuming that by the end of the month I will be washing immaculate clothes. As the days progress, it will become all the more obvious that I am washing clothing for the sake of ritual, not for the sake of cleanliness. After the process of washing my clothes has been completed for the day, I will leave the gallery, allowing the wet garments to be viewed by those passing through. As the clotheslines will extend beyond the top of the windows and into the ceiling, it is feasible that as viewers peer into the windows they will be able to look up into multiple teirs of my drying socks, underwear and t-shirts.
When deciding how to work with the space at Art In General, I was initially drawn to it’s location, and a desire to create a dialouge with the performance outside the confines of the white cube. Being so close to Chinatown, I couldn’t help but think of riding the Q train over the Manhattan Bridge into brooklyn, of the intimacy of seeing other people’s laundry drying on their balconies. It brings to mind James Stewart in Rear Window, voueristically memorizing all of his neighbor’s schedules from their adjoining backyards. I was also heavily influenced by the queering of everyday objects in the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and the solemn, ephemeral quality of his candy sculptures. Most importantly, I am interested in the use of banal, seemingly mundane actions in the work of Vito Acconci and Bruce Nauman.}
it's 14 words longer than the maximum allowed. someone help me make this 500 words! i'm super pumped about this performance idea! find extraneous phrases and help me edit them out! action words people, action words!