The Print Project
Internet-fatigued. I want things that have shapes, smells, and textures. Things that people and I can touch.
Having been a performer all my life, I appreciated that even in a pandemic I could imagine other people’s gaze in working and sharing in Virtual Studio. However, I have never regarded online distribution as a tangible way to touch or be touched by artwork. My Virtual Studio has been a place to work and communicate.
I am still a stranger to social media because I enjoy a real time and place which my viewers and I physically occupy—a time and place with different minds, tension, each person leaving with some thoughts. But we know that performances in theaters will be the last to come back to society.
I do not want my future installation to show only digital videos from monitors. I now want to create THINGS from pages of my Virtual Studio and media work by redesigning them as various prints. The Print Project has emerged from my desire to create an object that we can see and touch.
I imagine a large size cardboard box (4’ x 4’ x1/2’) containing about 30 or so prints of Virtual Studio and related works I performed and created in the past, some of which will question people’s notion of “prints.” I imagine that the box will contain all of the material for a one-room installation.
I imagine in an empty gallery, people would find the box. They would be invited to take out prints, place them around the space, hold them, and create a unique installation, or I would do so as a performance. Translating works from Virtual Studio into a tangible object in such performances, I am once again able to layer my body with history and, by doing so, present our continuous now into the gaze of the people. In the gallery, the remaining prints and the box itself will absorb another layer of history as each visitor encounters and engages with the objects.
I imagine working closely with designers and print makers We will look at each work in Virtual Studio, reconsidering its content and redesigning it as a print. Are you interested in joining me?
