Love Letters

I'll be showing the second of the Love Letters series, "Home Work," Tuesday, Oct 17, at The Hive membership launch at Roots Cafe in Providence. Here are the videos on vimeo:

http://vimeo.com/user4830895/albums

Making, Meaning, and Context: A Radical Reconsideration of Art’s Work

 Making, Meaning, and Context: A Radical Reconsideration of Art’s Work

Our festival/forum at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont is coming up soon. I'll be showing the first two parts of Love Letters on Friday, October 14. The video for part one is in the previous post, and the next part will be posted here soon.

Love Letters is a suite of performative video letters reflecting on the desire for home, the politics of homemaking and housecleaning, and the ecology of the home. The first letter, Dirt is Beautiful, examines cultural associations with dirt and the kinds of objects or conditions that arouse feelings of disgust. The second letter, called Home Work is a meditation on the gender politics of work, particularly the relationship between housework and work outside the home. Some of the questions posed include: Where do you work? How is your work at home different than work outside the home? Who works at home in your household? What is the work of your dreams? The artist invites participants to explore the potential for performative presence to imagine new ways of merging art and activism.

Dirt is Beautiful

Love Letters is a suite of performative video letters addressed to people close to the artist, reflecting on the desire for home, the politics of homemaking and housecleaning, the ecology of the home and the practice of love. This first letter, Dirt is Beautiful, examines associations with dirt and the kinds of objects or conditions that arouse feelings of disgust. The video begins after the performer steps in front of the screen wearing a pink apron on which the word, "Neighbor," is embroidered. She then flips the apron to her back and gets down on hands and knees to crawl towards the audience, spitting and scrubbing the floor as she goes. She continues to spit and scrub throughout the video, making her way between the aisles.

The second letter, called Home-Work, will explore the relationship between home and work. The last letter reflects on the impact of the "American Dream" for the suburban home on the health of the community and of the planet. The performance creates a space for exploring the potential for performative presence to stimulate memory, dialogue, and transformative politics.

Dirt is Beautiful from Ju-Pong Lin on Vimeo.