The critique of the Dinner project

Wednesday we discussed the Dinner project. There was alot of good response to this project, perhaps influenced by the way the class all knows each other. People generally seemed to find it interesting that a project like this seems to work so hard to blur art and life. There were references to Allan Kaprow, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and several other conceptual artists that concerned themselves with where “life” stops and “art” begins and vice versa.

Recent Projects

Here are rundowns on a couple of recent projects that have yet to be included in my body of work. I’ll start at the beginning:

First, The Frozen Section. This was a complex, you-had-to-be-there kind of project. It was heavily layered both formally and conceptually. It begins with the memory of my father’s battle with, and death from cancer. During his illness he went blind, couldn’t form sentences, and generally deteriorated.

You and That Thing That Happens To All of Us

The new blog project that I recently started is moving along very slowly.  Alot of people I talk to who are considering adding their sentiments say things like “It’s alot to think about”, or “I haven’t actually known anyone that’s died”.  I’m not sure how to remedy this, or if I need too.  Perhaps this is exactly my interest in this conversation, and my projects may need to revolve around figuring out ways to ‘break the ice’ so to speak.  It is a serious, and often heavy-handed subject which is what makes is so challenging to tackle in terms of artistic content.  While I do want to lighten the conversation, I’m not interested in trivializing or devaluing the experiences people do have with death.  I’m always open to suggestions.

The New Blog Project

I have started a new project that I’m hoping will gain some momentum, even if only for a short time.  Since blogs have recently been included as part of my research practice (they’re a great place to catalogue and store ideas), I decided to create one that others can be part of, and hopefully start a conversation.  Surprisingly, there isn’t alot of blog software that is designed the way I would like it to be, where users can sign up directly.  So, instead, they have to email me and then I create an account for them.  So far no one has signed up, so SIGN UP.   It’s called You and That Thing That Happens to All of Us. It’s about opening a conversation about death and dying.  I hope to learn some things about how people deal with the subject, provided people use it.