Summer Plan

So with the current trajectory of my work I've been imagining it in the context of an installation. My goal is to maybe be able to create this work over the summer and present it for my first crit in the fall. 

I would like the installation to manifest as a kind of liminal space between white cube gallery context and tacky commercialism of a chain movie theater.

The elements that I'm imaging are: 

• a carpet

• popcorn machine 

• popcorn bags 

• uniform 

• sculptures  

The Carpet. 

The carpet will be handmade with a punch needle in the aesthetic of a tacky busy theater carpet (they're busy so you can't see the soda stains) 

I’m imagining I will construct it in square segments using a repeating pattern. A question I have is- I'm imaging the pattern will be figurative rather than an abstraction and I’m not sure if it will have the same effect. 

The Popcorn Machine.

 I’m not sure how much I want to change the aesthetics of the popcorn machine. I definitely want to paint and add heat resistant vinyl but I don’t know if it’s important that I change anything physically about it and how that will manifest if I do. 

In regards to the colors I’ve been wondering about establishing “branding” colors for the installation. Most likely that makes the most sense but I’m not sure how I plan on landing on those colors. 

I think any changes I make on the popper will be informed by how the popcorn bags manifest.

Popcorn Bags 

For the popcorn bags, I have a specific popcorn bag in my mind that I wanted these to be based on. It’s the share bags from the theater that I worked at- they were the only bags we were allowed to eat from because we inventoried the other bags so I’ve eaten a lot of popcorn from this particular receptacle. 

The piece is meant to queer the art-viewing experience. Does the casualness of eating popcorn shift the experience of viewing artworks depicting violence? Does it implicate the viewer as a bystander? Does it highlight the fakeness of the representation? 

I was struggling with the aesthetics of the piece and was originally approaching it as a graphic design problem which I think was the problem. Eventually, I made the connection to Tom Sachs’ work and his DIY approach to commercialism made a lot of sense

I actually really love Tom Sachs’ work even though he seems like a real douche. 

Where I’m at now is needing to move forward with the work while making sure that I’m not just trying to make a Tom Sachs popcorn bag. I think the way I’ll be able to avoid that outcome is just to do the work and make a bunch of iterations and learn from what isn’t working. I’m also not 100% on what I want the content of the bag to be but I’m mostly sure that I want it to serve as a didactic. 

As far as the fabrication of the bag I want to alter the existing laser file I have to make the bag mimic the dimensions of the bag that I had in mind originally. I need to decide on whether I want to screen print the bags or print them on the risograph printer at Stamps. This decision hinges both on the aesthetic decisions I need to make (handmade/semi-handmade) and the practicality of which process will work better.

The Uniform: 

I would like to use the digital embroidery machine at Stamps to make a uniform for a theater employee. I plan on using the same DIY aesthetic and place an image or text on the left breast of a polo shirt and a baseball hat. Rather than using a logo I’d like the embroidered elements to “speak” to one another. Conceptually that’s as far as I’ve gotten with this idea. I’m also ambivalent about whether I intend on having someone actually wearing the uniform. There’s a question of whether viewers will be served popcorn or serve themselves. I also thought about the possibility of automating filling the popcorn bags as another way to replace my body with technology but this doesn’t really help me address the problem of how to present this uniform if there’s no body. I thought about the possibility of putting it on a figurative sculpture but I don’t love the way it’s looking in my mind's eye.

The Sculptures: 

Wacky Inflatable Tube Guy Figures

Based on a suggestion made by Kim in my last crit I think I would like to modify the description of my Smucker Wagstaff grant to have collapsing sculptures that rely on air rather than motors to collapse and rise 

Standee

I also want to use the language of cardboard standees to make sculptures that play with 3 dimensional coupled with moments of flatness.