Boxes

For this project I continued with the idea of creating and placing things others can take with them. I decided to make boxes this time and place them on the tables in the Library. People use these tables throughout the day to study or meet with others. Because of this I figured the people who uses these tables might be likely to take a box with them.

What a Dump...

For this second project, I constructed three panels out of cardboard and newspaper, with stick supports to secure them in the dumpster. I left the shape of the newspaper intact and stained it with coffee to create the illusion of soiled newsprint emerging somewhat organically from the trash. In choosing the form, I opted for a less defined and more figurative image, hoping to draw attention to the image as art and not its actual content. In contrast to the first project, I tried to make this project more site-specific on multiple levels. Rather than using paint, I pared the materials down to mostly trash with minimal use of chalk and charcoal. Additionally, the project is site-specific in a more obvious sense, with the figure literally resting on the heaped trash bags. The dumpster proved a far better site than the original trash can in that the wide expanse of trash creates a sort of landscape for the figure. The full dumpster also offers a literal juxtaposition of art and trash, playing on the ambiguities between them, something I was not able to achieve with the emptier trash can in Project 1. I was limited in terms of picking a dumpster with relevant surrounding structures due the fact that many of Albuquerque's dumpsters are enclosed, locked or not open to public dumping. I eventually settled with one on campus, behind Castetter and, interestingly enough, adjacent to the Daily Lobo building.  

Read it.

Project II: Duck Pond

I chose the duck pond for my site because it's so well known and liked not just through the campus but through the city. People come to walk around it, children come on field trips, I've even seen a few weddings there.

My original idea was to let the public not only comment but also take the photos for this next project. 

So I got a disposable camera,

left a note,

and tied it to a tree.

This project isn't site specific in that it would only work in a specific site, but it is site specific in that the outcome will be different wherever this is done.
I did hit a speed bump though. By the next morning, this camera was gone. Just gone. So that day I went around with my own point-and-shoot camera and asked the people I saw sitting around the duck pond to take a picture of their favorite part of the area. These are the photos I got from them:

This was the outcome. I made the photos smaller than I had them last time to give more people to write. This shot was taken shortly after I put it up, so there aren't very many comments yet. 

My mustache brings all the boys to the yard...

 Laguna

 La Posada

Mitchell Hall

For this project I wanted people to take a deep, long look in the mirror...so they could see what they would look like with mustache.  Really I wanted to make people laugh.  Maybe when they looked in the mirror they'd smile.  If they were having a bad day maybe it got better.

Thanks for seeing me...

This is located in the Hokona Hall Lobby on the bulletin board that's supposed to be used as a calendar even though it is empty and still has its January label. I chose this area because it gets a lot of traffic 24/7 but generally people walk through without paying attention to their surroundings. I wanted to add a small, complex art piece to an otherwise bland setting. The sticker is meant to invoke a WTF kind of reaction while also getting the audience to ponder it's eccentric qualities. It doesn't look like it makes sense right off, but if you look at it long enough you may come to understand some of its symbolic images. Or not. But it doesn't matter, it's not the interpretation that matters so much as the immediate reaction to seeing it.

Chalking Garage