Installation
The Proliferation of ESSEN or, whose work is it anyway?
...A Work In Constant Progress
This installation combines live-art/relational action in the gallery, photo/video and text documentation of previous in-situ performances, as well as documentation of actions as they unfold in the gallery.
The performance ESSEN (German or Yiddish: to eat), was initiated in 2003 when I was working on a series of tableaux vivants; process-based public art actions called (Being) One Thing at a Time. Since its first showing, ESSEN has taken on a life of its own, with repeated invitations to re-enact the performance in several locations – both within Montreal and beyond. ESSEN requests that pairs of participants sit across from each other at a table, in the sharing of a meal which takes place in a non-art venue: a restaurant, a park, a guest's home.
ESSEN as performed and documented in Barrie, ON, 2007
This playful and meditative performance insists that one is not permitted to feed oneself but instead be fed by one's dining partner (drinking independently is allowed). As a performance, ESSEN creates an opportunity to pay close attention and to slow down time. In so doing, it serves to address several themes that have occurred in much of my artistic work over the last number of years - my contentious relationship to food (and eating), as well as issues around body, sexuality, intimacy, and obsession/addiction. While this work has previously only been undertaken in non-art spaces, for the exhibition I plan to bring the performance into the gallery, inviting audience members (participants) to come and share a meal. Public meals, carried out in the same manner as previous ESSEN performances, are scheduled repeatedly throughout the course of the exhibition.
ESSEN as performed and documented in Montreal, QC, Vancouver, BC, and Toronto, ON, 2006
As an exhibition several stations are set up throughout the gallery: Station 1: The Performance (as described above). This is the proliferation of ESSEN in action: as people come in to share meals with me, we document it and then post images - along with notes on observations - on the wall behind us. Station 2: Original (Being) series of 30" x 40" photos (taken by S.B. Edwards) and brief commentary-texts. This is where ESSEN initially took form and started to proliferate. Station 3: The proliferation of ESSEN. Prints from several photographers' documentation are displayed here, in varying size and quality of image. Further along the wall (adjacent to the performance) are photos and notes from independent initiations of the performance - enactments done without my involvement whatsoever. Station 4: ESSEN's 15 minutes of fame (proliferation to the nth degree): showing video footage from a taped episode of the CBC's Des Kiwis et des hommes.
ESSEN as performed and documented in Ottawa, ON, 2005
A key component of this installation is the meta-exhibition - the often invisible question inherent in performance (and its documentation) which is: "Whose work is it?" Whose work is it: When I engage in an act with a complicit participant? When a photographer takes a picture and these documents then represent my work and further, become part of a public display, such as an exhibition? When another person (artist or non-artist) takes the concept and implements it independently? (And even further, is it even still considered art if a non-artist does this?) Each station outlined in the previous section proposes to address the above questions both experientially through this process-based, evolving exhibition (that will combine live-art-action and photo/video documentation of previous and current actions) as well as intellectually through a round-table discussion/debate that would take place during this exhibition. Ultimately, the goal is to create a LIVING exhibition - a situation that not only combines various stages of "art (in the) making" but that also acknowledges the CHALLENGE-CONUNDRUM-DILEMMA of - and POTENTIAL for - creating and displaying a "multi-authored" work. I would like to promote dialogue around the "invisible question" in order to find personalized ways to negotiate our terms, ways to expose/express this process, and to keep defining the relationship between "ARTIST" (i.e.: instigator of the work), "PARTICIPANT" (i.e.: audience member who is essential in activating the work) and "DOCUMENTOR" (i.e.: the person or people who photograph or videotape the work, often artists themselves).
Today I Ate
Please see the One-Off Works section.