CHRONOLOGICAL PROJECTS # 17 - 20

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FINDING HOME

(series of 14 banners, each 5x8’ , vinyl, ink; 2001)

A collaboration between residents at Deborah’s Place, a facility for homeless women in Chicago, and myself; the project was sponsored by Archi-Treasures, an urban public art organization in Chicago which fosters community-based projects thru the city. Volunteer residents and I worked together for 5 weeks to determine how they felt the homeless were/are perceived, what they all learned from being homeless, what was important to them then and since, what expertise they now had that they would like to pass on to others. Through photo sessions and collage workshops, the women’s images and words were fashioned into drafts which they critiqued 3 times until final selection. These banners hang in the courtyard of their newest facility, a longterm residence, at 2822 W. Jackson, Chicago, IL.

 

THE BRIDE IN HER DAILY LIFE

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Photographs accompanied by essay, published in THE JOURNAL OF MUNDANE BEHAVIOR,

 

 

REAL FEELINGS GIFT WRAP

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 (ongoing series of “gift wrap,” with photo silkscreen prints designed and printed over traditional preprinted gift wrap; sheets 24x36”, 1999 on)

Giving gifts is done for formal, traditional reasons, as well as less formal ones. Each of us uses gift giving in a variety of ways, which may include celebrating a holiday, birthday, anniversary or rite of passage. But we also give gifts spontaneously when we find something we know someone would like, to show someone we’re thinking about him/her, to cajole someone into doing something we want done, to apologize for a small indiscretion or hurt, to break the ice before an announcement, to pretend like a situation is fixed and forgotten. These reasons for giving gifts can slip from the celebrating a happy occasion through apology for some flash of strong feeling that slipped out, down and down into darker and more manipulative territory. I am using these gift wraps as potential instances of the “real feelings” for giving the gift actually being displayed on the gift itself.

BODY BUY BACK

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 (22'x180' wall in hallway at Schmidt Fine Arts Center, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL; acrylic paint, sticky-back vinyl letters, surgical tape; 1999)

I gave a slide talk at FAU on the work I've done with communities, followed by a discussion with the audience about the issues there in Boca which they felt were not being adequately discussed. The subject easily selected was cosmetic surgery. I returned to Boca after doing general research in cosmetic or aesthetic surgery. I was connected to relevant people by the National Organization of Jewish Women, the League of Women Voters, 2+3: An Artist Group, and a number of unaffiliated women. We met in groups, sought out individuals who had had cosmetic surgery, others who were considering it, some who wouldn't have it, as well as a dozen plastic surgeons. As a result of those talks and meetings, I worked with images from plastic surgery textbooks, and began to formulate a series of questions with my new colleagues about the topic. Those questions attempted to function like a quiz. However, weaving through the familiar problems we associate with this surgical practice were questions that served to point towards an unstated difficulty: that this esthetic surgery (as opposed to reconstructive surgery) was a personal solution to a societal problem. The questions were finally incorporated onto the wall, as were stencilled images derived from textbook illustrations about standards of beauty and surgical techniques.