I recently sent a proposal to the
Indianapolis Museum of Art for their residency program on Andrea Zittel's
Indy Island. My proposal is as follows. Let's keep our fingers crossed on this one!
ABSTRACT
I think of this opportunity as both a retreat for personal reflection and growth of ideas
related to my own artistic practice, as well as a test of endurance relating to the experi-
ence of surviving on a desert island. These contradicting concepts are of great interest
and relate closely to my personal research.
I am influenced by various social phenomena in American culture such as the
loss of childhood innocence, collective joy and celebratory acts. I create experiences
and encourage participation through interactive objects, installations and
collaborative performances. All of my work employs some type of contradiction, both
visually and conceptually as a way to symbolically reference back to the struggle be-
tween childhood innocence and what happens to us as adults.
PROPOSAL
The Indianapolis island provides both a protective, womb-like environment for growth
and introspection, while simultaneously testing ones ability to survive a minimal, nearly
isolated lifestyle. I intend to convey these ideas to others and share my experiences and
reactions through multiple interactive experiences.
The interior of the island will be transformed into one large, plush environment to refer-
ence the symbolic nature of a womb. Other than the permanent interior structures, the
interior will be stripped bare and filled with lush pink and red fabrics and undulating
plush forms. There will be no distinction between known forms such as a bed, table,
chair, storage, etc. It will be multiple organic forms to serve all of those purposes.
In addition to daily journaling of my experiences which can be documented on the pro-
vided blog as well as other social media, I intend to create at least one drawing a day
that visually references my experiences and conceptual evolution of how this journey
relates to and affects my personal art practice. These drawings will be placed in glass
bottles, sealed, and thrown into the water as a poetic reference to someone trying to
communicate a message from a desert island or a ship at sea. Some may make it
ashore for park attendees to pick up, while others may never make it ashore. At the
conclusion of this residency the remaining bottles can be gathered up and displayed as
a visual timeline of my experience.
Each night I also intend to tell one portion of an ever-expanding story through wireless
speakers placed on shore. I see this as my bed-time story to the park and anyone near
enough to hear. This story will be both factual, including thoughts from my journal, as
well as partially fabricated in a playful attempt to once again reference back to my main
interests in the struggle between childhood innocence and adulthood. This can also be
recorded as a podcast in order to reach a larger audience.
The last thing I intend to do if given this opportunity is to allow others to share in this
womb-like meditative experience. For one hour each day I will give the opportunity for
another individual to have time alone to rest and reflect within the island. They can
sleep, draw, meditate, etc. It is completely up to them what they do with their time. What
they must do however is leave me a message of their thoughts on the experience that I
can then include in the blog and possibly even the evolving bed-time story.
