Thanks to the Illinois State Legislature and The School of the Art Institute, I now have a lot of time to work on my projects, so I decided to write my “Summer To-Do List”. I’ve written this up so that I have a clear idea of what it is I want to work on over the next couple of months. I’m posting it on here so that I can stay motivated and appreciative of the amount of time I have to devote to these things. I am trying to make my projects “portable” concepts, in the sense that they are repeatable and I can do them anywhere.
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List of my current Interacting Projects
I use language games and social interactions to create visual representations of how people interact with each other and the world. I am no longer calling what I and my collaborators do and make "art". I am not giving what we do or make any special name at all because I don’t want to distinguish these objects or activities from the rest of what people do within the world of social interactions. In addition, I have begun to make things by working with non-human and non-living creatures (flowers, the weather, etc.), so I can’t call what I do “culture”. How could I ever demean our Interacting with a name as limiting as “art”.
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The List:
1. Reverse Rorschach Inkblot Portraits: Large abstract paintings are made from the designs left behind after I Interact with a collaborator who is the subject of the Interaction. Includes an installation for each painting that is used to stage another set of Interactions. A book accompanies each painting. Two portraits are complete so far. The next participant in a Inkblot Portrait is Hector Villagrana, who is currently the "filling-in" alderman for Chicago's 26th Ward until Mayor Daley appoints an official alderman.
Reverse Rorschach Inkblot Portraits Installation
2. Return to Place (Re-Placements) Projects: Photographs are taken of objects in urban landscapes. Stickers are made from the photo and stuck on the object that is the subject of the photo. The placement of the sticker is photographed over time. The resulting photographs are an Interaction with the weather, passersby, vandals, and anything else that “comes in contact” with the sticker. A report of the Interaction, in the form of a book, is generated. One Re-Placement Project is complete; one is currently taking place.
Photograph from 2nd Re-Placement
3. E Pluribus Unum: A large abstract painting is being created as the result of democratic Interactions between a large group of people. The painting is an idealized social space where all the participants have equal space and equal voice. In addition, two books will accompany the final painting. The project has been ongoing for the last year. I am seeking new collaborators to become members of the the E Pluribus Unum Community. Our utopian community exists within and we interact only within the space of the painting and the books. This is not a mural porject. The majority of the participants have never met each other face-to-face. They are Interacting with each other only within the pages of a book and, through me, on the canvas.
Image from E Pluribus Unum
4. Merzwalks: 40 people have participated in Merzwalks, a form of Buddhist mindfulness practice rooted in the Western tradition of Dada and anti-art. A book of stereogram photographs is being created from the objects generated during the Merzwalks.
Merzwalk Stereocard
5. Stereogram Collaborative Paintings: I am using a stereocard I’ve designed that allows two people to collaborate on a drawing that is combined when the viewer looks at the card through a pair of lens. My collaborators are strangers to each other and to me, as I am finding them via advertisements on Craigslist. They draw on the cards at separate times and never actually “meet” each other. Each combined drawing will be used to make a large-scale painting. I am planning ten of these.
Stereogram Drawing Card
6. Profile Pic Portraits: I am using social networking sites to ask people I chat with (some of who I have never actually "met" and some who are friends of mine) to send me a pic of themselves that they would like me to paint as a portrait. The paintings are representations of the pics; I try to paint the photograph as it is on the screen without too much interpretation. The resulting object is more of a portrait of the pic than of the person in the pic. These are Interactions that question the nature of social relationship, social presentation of self, and self-image. The project also tries to question the difference between a portrait and a self-portrait.
My intention is to make twenty to thirty (or more) Profile Pic Portraits. Enough to cover an entire wall as an installation. A sort of social networking site in acrylic and oil.
7. Iris Paintings: Dying irises drip marks onto watercolor paper. I make an encaustic painting from the drawing the iris made for me. One done. I am going to do a lot of these.
An Iris Drawing
An Iris Drawing
Encaustic painting made from iris drip drawing.
Detail.
