31 century museum in Chicago

Destructible Station

The purpose of my station for the 31st Century Museum in Chicago, was to personally respond to one of the exhibition examples that had taken place at the 31st Century Museum’s place of origination in Kanazawa, Japan. This exhibit consisted of personal objects from participants, which were of some significance to each person, and contained a part of their spirit. This particular project held significance for me, as it drew a connection to the thesis I am writing about my past experience in an abusive relationship. I started to consider the artifacts and objects that were left over from this relationship; why did I still have these things? Things that were loaded with the memory of hurt, anxiety and pain, in parallel with my thesis, it only made sense to use them for my portion of the 31st Century Museum.

I donated a repurposing station, as well as a t-shirt, the remnants of my past, to the 31st Century space, in order for the purpose of the shirt to be redefined. Over the course of a few weeks, I also destroyed and recreated another shirt leftover from that relationship, while also holding office hours during which visitors could come and talk about the continuously changing work within the space. At first the idea of contemporary spirit was a hard concept for me to define, but over the course of time I spent with Kamin and the other curators in the class, I found that my personal definition of contemporary spirit is the act of creating experiences that can benefit and inform others in many forms. While the contemporary spirit can range in its specific forms, the general idea is the interaction between the creator’s concept and those experiencing the creation.

Combining the idea of personal objects that contain personal spirit, experience, my own personal work, and the fact that human’s are ever changing and evolving beings, I feel that my participation in this project has allowed another step of evolution from my past self to my present self.

MY MA Performace installation view

My MA:

A performance by Amber Yared with: 
Ilie Paun Capriel 
Joel Parsons 
Mary Warbelow 
Hope Esser 
Heather Smith 
Colin Winnette

Six MA and MFA students of SAIC simultaneously read aloud the in-progress thesis of Art Education students.

My MA is a durational piece in which five performers (all MAAE students) stand together in a line and read their thesis aloud, beginning all at the same time. As each performer comes to the end of a page, she/he lets it fall to the ground. As the performers continue reading, becoming more and more exhausted, the pile of discarded pages grows in front of them. Since each person’s thesis is a different length, each performer finishes reading at a different time, and then leaves the performance. The piece ends when the last person finishes reading, possibly two to three hours from the starting time.

Friday 18 November 12:30 pm, The performance begins at 12:30 pm and will continue for approximately 1.5 to 2 hours. Please enter at any time during its duration.