Our last project for Advanced Sculpture was to create a piece that was based in interactivity. The ways in which an artwork can be interactive are expansive. To some extent all art is interactive; my aim was to create a piece that prompted the viewer to be active while looking into an alternative to private space.
I have been very interested in the ways that Vito Acconci explored public and private spaces. I began thinking about spaces that are private, or house private activity. I thought about the structures that made them private like walls and windows and began to wonder how those spaces encourage or prevent intimacy. For my final piece, I wanted to incorporate the use of actors so that the process in and of it was interactive for me as the artist. I asked the two participants/actors to create a domestic space together, to make a home with each other. The area that I asked them to do this in was on public property. Actors will do a live performance in which they will design and respond to a domestic space without walls making the private, public. To begin, I provided the actors with material items that are typically found in a western home; some of the items included were given picture frames, pillows, blankets, food, soap, candles and a clock. They asked to find a space that suited their needs, within a small parameter. If they were to live here where would it be? How would they use these materials to create a space and could it feel like home? How comfortable could they become in a particular space or in a public space? The actors designed a living space in a wild atmosphere. The act of watching them begins to feel as if they are animals and we are watching them within a natural habitat. There are layers of the piece that make the viewer think about primitive action and engagement with the world.
The performance will seduce the viewer’s attention due to the nature of its usual absence; you can't usually watch strangers in domestic spaces. However, the actions themselves are not peculiar. During the performance a man baths, a girl hangs clothing and makes a bed; they converse, organize, laugh and talk at points. The actions are not what are surprising; it is the ability to look that sustains the viewer. I am interested in discussing how life without walls would change us as a culture. What would this type of openness look like were we all to engage?
The goal of the performance is to provide viewers with a chance to become voyeurs and look inside someone else’s private space. When creating the piece I imagined it at a gallery. There would be different points in the museum that viewers could pick up binoculars and view people in domestic spaces. They would be engaging in a variety of activities. This performance is an example of one of those activities. It takes place in 2.5-hour increments. Viewers can look at what they are doing at any point during the performance through the binoculars provided.
