Projects, 3 of 8

	CHRONOLOGICAL PROJECTS # 13 - 17	page 3 of 8

RECOLLECTION	Ordinary used objects, tossed out or saved, tend to have a history. Any bit of debris found in someone’s house has a story, sometimes figuring large in someone’s memory, sometimes forgotten as soon as it was used. This project looks at the ordinary and familiar in ways which cross these examples. Jars of various sizes and shapes are containers for bits of materials, largely unimpressive. But each is affixed with a printed label which refers to its usage or importance in one person’s life. Taken together, these jars constitute a biography; but any one jar could have a different label applied by each viewer. In this way, it could be said that objects are recycled through all of our lives, lending new meaning in the context of each person’s individual story. These jars operate somewhat like the reliquary. An old, crushed doll squeezed into a jar with a label reads, “The doll my sister took it all out on. 1950s”: what is this? What happened to the sister? Does looking more closely at this doll tell us anything about what took place? We look at that doll in that jar far differently than we would if we simply encountered it at a garage sale. This installation consists of hundreds of filled and labeled jars laid out on tall, narrow tables. Accompanying them is an engraved sign which says simply PLEASE ORGANIZE. This becomes an invitation to the viewer to combine certain jars perhaps according to “theme,” or to color, or to chronology, or to size, or narrative. Similar objects recycle through our lives serving different or related purposes so that over time, each of us has a story to tell about nearly every object we’re confronted with. This recycling becomes remembering, objects living as devices.	READINESS	(size variable; mixed media; 2004) Readiness evolved as a response to the location of my studio residency from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, 1 June-30 October, 2004, near the former World Trade Center site. Through discussions, interviews, online research, data collection and an engagement with people closely related to the 9/11 events, I explored how each of us might prepare for the next time, for the Ultimate Terrorist Attack. The 21st century Western refugee, forced to abandon home and move through the wreckage of disaster would need a great deal to survive even the recommended 3 days (“help will come after that”). How long would this condition last? How long would she want to survive, given particulars of the conditions? I designed a series of specialized clothing layers with labels on every compartment for all of the necessary items. These provide an ironic model of supplies actually recommended by various Federal and NGO sources constituting generic aid and sustenance, irrespective of specific antidotes to a particular attack method. Displayed separately in gallery installation, all the layers would “in reality” be worn together. (15 minute video available.) Constructed out of a tough plastic mesh, the clothing consists of (closest to the body): • an Information and Memory layer (photo ID, passport, important papers, currency, credit cards, photographs, letters, etc.); • a Medical layer (antiseptic creams, burn gel, bandages, stomach and intestinal remedies, etc.); • a Food layer (canned meat and fish, granola bars, dried fruit, protein powder); • a Water layer, with purification tablets; • a scarf Comfort layer (candy, tea, peanut butter and honey, etc.); • a Tools layer (compass, knife, rope, plastic sheeting, sleeping bag, etc.); • a Change of Clothing layer (as a headwrap); • and finally an outer Collection layer, a Great Coat with large empty pockets for scavenging useful or valuable items found in the apocalyptic wreckage. This cover also conceals the deeper layers, which would be of value to any survivor who hadn’t planned ahead. With all of these worn, what results is a human monster, overweighted, overburdened. She carries the responsibility of preparing for a life determined by decisions made beyond her control. The many lists available online have provided the Citizenry with apparent control over their lives while at the same time reinforcing fear and dependence on the government. They tell us it is up to them to inform us about specific causes of and provide antidotes for an attack. In the end, these layered provisions (at 80 lbs. minimum for 3 days) may be all we have.
MAKEDO	A public art project by Peggy Diggs For an exhibition, Borne of Necessity, curated by Ron Platt, Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, February-April, 2004 Statement on project page.
DO NOT SLEEP	“Do Not Sleep,” Digital Mural designed with teens from Central High School, Philadelphia, sponsored by the Print Center, Philadelphia, 2001-2003. Installed at the Philadelphia Sports Coliseum, August 2003 Initiated by The Print Center in Philadelphia, this project evolved from a week of intensive meetings with teens at Central High School in Philadelphia, the oldest public high school in America. Our meetings were held a month after 9/11 which necessarily became the focus for our discussions. There were such varied feelings among the teens, the teachers and myself, that the design process took many many months, and submissions from all of us as individuals. Trying to hear the underlying streams of concern, I pulled together three images with text that appeared to reflect the feelings about the attack on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the crash in Pennsylvania. Several venues were found for this project, as well as those of several other artists commissioned at the same time. Only in the spring of 2003 was it determined that these would all hang in the new sports coliseum complex in the city.

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MAKEDO