project plan

October 31, 2009

My project will make use of design and packaging to invite specific people to participate in an interview/ portrait-making process with me. My focus is on relationships and how our relationships play a huge role in defining us and making us human. In the process I will be exploring the differences and similarities between interview and the tradition fine art ritual of sitting for a portrait. In the creation of the art pieces that result I will use a wide variety of media to explore the possibilities of this intensive focus on one human being. What can be said about personality, construction of modern identity and our cultural outlook/ mythology? The final outcome will be a multi-faceted portrait of the relationship between us.
My aim is to create a game in which my subject might be enticed to collaborate with me and participate in this project. I will use my skills in book arts, printmaking and design to create a variety of packages that contain an invitation to participate. These may take the form of dossiers that will be delivered to five specific individuals outlining the rules of the exchange and asking them to accept my request. The idea is to show honor and appreciation through thoughtful design and craft. The resulting interviews may take place through dinner parties, long hikes, a cocktail party, or other social engagements. I will dedicate a certain amount of time for each portrait during which I will work with that person exclusively. This will be about 5 weeks for each person.
After acquiring five willing participants the next phase is to set up a time and place for the interview. I plan to create a somewhat controlled environment to help ritualize the space and underscore the feeling of this event taking place outside of everyday life or having some timeless significance. I also want to develop a persona based on my thoughts and feelings for each person and inhabit this alter ego during the interview and portrait process. I hope this will help me understand my own role in the relationship and intensify the aspect of a ritual rather beyond just “hanging out”. For this I hope to make use of my studies concerning rites of passage and how artwork has historically been used in these types of rituals
The third part of my project is simply the creation of portraits of these people based off the video, photos, transcripts, and my own impression of the interview. These will take the final form of individual multi-media portraits of each subject. I plan to use a variety of text, drawings and paintings, as well as the video and photographs to create these pieces. I will focus on these as individual portraits that are layered in time using all available media to create a rich and compelling portrait and to hopefully shed further light on some of the questions I ask in my research paper. It would be my ideal to open dialogues in which my own ownership of the situation as an artist is leveraged and I am dependent on the participation of others to complete my project.
My interest, and reason for setting up this project lies in two main areas. First, I am very interested in the social aspect, getting out of my own studio and engaging with people on terms that are not entirely my own. I want to explore the meaning and possibilities of friendship and the centrality of these people to my experience of life, and consequently, my art practice. Second, I am extremely interested in the relationship between portraiture and interview. Where are the boundaries between the two and what new possibilities might emerge by combination or synthesis of these forms?

Production Schedule

SEPT work on design strategy for packaging
OCT production of packages
NOV distribution
DEC distribution and interviews
JAN
FEB interviews cont. and studio work
MAR
APR all interviews complete. Studio work cont.
MAY
JUN prepare for exhibition and documentation
JULY