This is me not loving you is an interactive text installation in Buffalo, New York’s upper west side neighborhood. The artist attempts to relate to the community by providing short, take-away poems in the form of flyer pull-tabs. The artist explores the concepts of association of place with human experience and heartbreak. With this installation, the artist also attempts to subject the work and it’s viewers to the natural elements, strategically placing the flyers within a 1 mile radius throughout different neighborhood blocks while also leaving them exposed to rain, sun, and other altering weathers; leaving their existence in the hands of both persons and the landscape.
I Can't Do This Alone
paper cutout
I Can't Do This Alone is a temporary public art installation created for the 2015 Sugar City Mystery Tour. Sugar City is a DIY, volunteer-run, all-ages performance venue located in Buffalo, NY. The Mystery Tour, taking place every year, is a walk-a-about journey full of creative surprises-art, film, music, performance and more at various unexpected spots in the near Buffalo area. I Can't Do This Alone spans across the inside of three vacant building windows and is intended to be viewed at night and backlit with interior lighting. The piece consists of sixteen individual letters, all cut separately from freehand. Photos: Joel Brenden
Untitled
looped video
Buffy
video stills on paper
Buffy is an interactive visual installation compromised of curated video stills from the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The artist organizes random subtitles from scenes in order to create a completed work of alternative poetry. Bending pre-existing text allows for creative freedom in re-establishing a new narrative from already existing storylines. This cut & paste poetic process provides both the artist and the viewer with the autonomy to create their own narratives. Viewers were encouraged to rearrange the paper slides in support of this individual narrative.
For What It's Worth
performance with paper, typewriter and scanner
For What It's Worth supplemental document
For What It’s Worth is an interactive/performance piece that addresses the issue of pay scales among the Liberal Arts field. Specifically honing in on Creative Writing, For What It’s Worth approaches the idea of “time” as a value system (hourly-wage, salary, etc.) The performance piece consists of a workstation table that is erected in a designated location, along with a typewriter, an electronic scanner, and the ‘employee’ (artist/poet). The ‘employee’ will work consistently for “X” amount of hours to produce the designated products of poems and VIS/PO (visual poetry) for the public. Interested individuals may purchase a poem for a price that they deem is acceptable for the selected work of their choosing. The individual is not required to pay any set amount for a piece and will be allowed to take a poem or visual poem for free, if they so choose. Proper transaction equipment is ready on site, including a Square account that can accept credit card payments, if necessary. Scans will be made immediately following the completion of all works produced, distributed to the public if ‘purchased’ and original pieces kept as documentation, along with the completed and signed contract provided. The result of the performance is to calculate, on a local level, how much an Artist’s time and their product is worth to the public. The amount acquired will be averaged out by the number of hours worked and an hourly wage for the ‘employee’ will be determined. The motive & purpose of the piece is to determine at what level the public buyer holds the creative field workers and the products they produce.
Small Scale Futures
Google Maps, interactive computer interface
Small Scale Futures is an interactive poetic piece that approaches human sentiment and emotion and their relation to geographical location. The artist re-establishes what it means to associate place with personal experiences. Through assigning personal statements to specific locations, the artist is able to both accept former, negative associations while also creating new, positive associations through controlled, autonomous classification.
The project was presented on a laptop computer and connected to WiFi so that viewers were able to interact with the different geographical locations, their satellite images, and their associated poetic statements in real time.