November 23 - Public Interventions and Models of Collaboration

Public interventions are a new public art genre that is inspired from the avant-garde movements. Performace, theatre, process-based art seems to reference the dialogical and collaborative art practices. It seems that many artists are choosing this method of art practice because social connections are more meanignful. As an artist, architect and urban designer Adrian Blackwell finds ways in getting people involved in the artwork rather than being a passive spectator. For me, as a visual art student, I am finding that this type of art practice is especially interesting. In school we are taught traditional art practices like painting, sculpture, design, printmaking etc., but I find that the art can be narcisisstic. Of course creating objects and images is enjoyable and is also very therapeutic, but there has to be more than just the object. And yes, perhaps my artworks can inspire or provoke throught and contemplation about the world. In the end there is still that personal, one-to-one disconnection from viewer to artist or vice versa. Lately I have been attempting to create artwork that has a dialogical component to it. I don't have any images, but I will give you an example. I am facinated with writing words or names on paper, any kind of paper: newspaper, bible pages, flyers, bond paper, lined paper...anything. One day I brought some loose pages from a Christian Church hymnal that I bought for fifty cents at Value Village to a bar. I was celebrating my friend's brithday, so I took out my markers, wrote her name on one of hymnal pages and pretty much doodled around her name until it was no longer legible. A few minutes into my drawing, a man approached our table and said "you must be either really bored of their (my two friends) conversation or you're really into what you are doing." I was hoping this wasn't a cheesy pick up line. Then he asked "What are you doing?" So I explained to the man that I am obsessed with drawing people's names and doodling around them. He seemed genuinely interested in what I was doing and didn't leave our table. He was standing there so long asking me all these questions about the drawing. Finally, I said "Here. I'll make you one, but you have to talk to me while I'm doing it." He seemed really excited and so I wrote his name MICHAEL on a hymn sheet and I started to doodle. I found many things about Michael that night. Where he worked, the big accident that happened to him, his zodiac sign and a bunch of other things that I can't remember. Michael's friends started to come over and before I knew it, there were 7 people around me asking questions and me asking them questions. We were having conversations. My friends were also getting involved telling people around our table what I was doing. I met 5 interesting people that day and one person said that the conversation changed his perspective on his own life. To me, this was far more rewarding than hanging a painting I made on a wall and wonder what the viewers think. There is a disconnect in social relationships. People are often mediated my technological devices and banal daily routines. This is where dialogical art, public interventions, and collaborative art work disrupt the "normal" routine. The process of connecting with people is beautiful and can be facilitated through an artist in collaboration with its participants. I was further inspired by Grant Kester's "Coversation Pieces" book and have found a new way of approaching my art work to make it meaningful to me as well as, other people. Through my art work I hope to connect with people and have genuine connections, even if only for a few minutes.