Signage

I hadn’t thought about it at the time I found the “Shop Like A Canadian” sign, but seeing this one made me think it would be an interesting project to document the signs in the area that directly acknowledge Canadians. This one was in Niagara Falls, at Custom Carpet Center of all places. Do they actually sell many custom carpets to Canadians? Do they do international installation or is this just an acknowledgment of the economic climate of the area?

Seeing the Victoria Day sign below sealed the motivation to document the signs. Which country is being catered to here? Sometimes it feels like there isn’t even a border between the two countries… but without a border, none of this would be happening.

Victoria

I’ve been so caught up in other events that until I took a break to watch the news last night, I forgot all about this month’s Canadian holiday: Victoria Day, which from the sound of it, is actually quite special.

Cars began pouring through the border and into the shopping mall parking lots as early as yesterday although the holiday itself is not until Monday. What better way to honor/honour Queen Victoria by indulging in a bit of capitalism in the country that revolted against everything the monarchy represented?

A relevant article from The Toronto Star website that sums it up well; ““I know it’s not good for Canada, but it’s good for shopping,” said Bryan Hammond, of Ajax, shopping at Walden with his wife and two sons, Ryan, 24, and Rob, 20.” Self-interest prevails while a tongue-in-cheek cover of the song “Victoria” by The Fall plays on repeat in my mind.

Employment and Irony

Graduation is a big deal, but in ways other than what I’d anticipated because of the endless amounts of uncertainty that accompanies it. Losing my student assistant position at the university by the end of this week, I will eventually need to look for another job and figure out what really comes next. Graduate school? MFA? MA in Art History? An emerging program in Visual Studies? I have some ideas and prospects for the immediate future and I’d love to stay within the realm of art-related endeavors but as for an actual job, I have a resume which only seems to prove my qualifications for success in retail.

I’m trying to look at the bright side of that last statement. Working in retail obviously informs my artwork and has for awhile, even before I began “shop like a Canadian.” I could continue this trend, focusing on my artwork and the continuation of this particular project by getting a new position in retail. I’m looking at the extremely Canadian-catering and expanding outlet mall in Niagara Falls, where I ended up collecting the largest amount of shoeboxes and other items. The benefit of my prior places of employment at the Walden Galleria, located just outside Buffalo, was my co-workers. They were great friends who didn’t have a problem with my esoteric projects.

The expansion at the outlet mall is supposed to include higher-end stores than this area is used to, including Michael Kors, Juicy Couture, Guess Accessories, bebe, and Hugo Boss. This seems to reflect upon catering to the Canadian market because they are currently the ones with all of the buying power. Since these are new stores who won’t see me in person before they see me on paper, I thought it might be fun to apply at places like these and carefully document my appearance should I be summoned for an interview, dressing up to “play the part” according to each specific store. I’ve been rejected before even receiving an interview at certain types of stores in the past based upon my appearance, so I want to go over the top to look the part. Should I be rejected, then it was just a fun and playful experience. Should I be accepted, I’d be surprised and perhaps accept the job, only it would take a lot of upkeep for such a fancy facade. Worst of all, I’d be back in the position of subjecting myself to the service of the Canadian consumer. Perhaps this could lead to future projects entailing the physical and psychological profiling of these people committing random acts of litter all over our beautiful Western New York centers of commerce.

And if working in customer service at a high-end store during the day to enhance my collecting of customer’s litter at night does not carry enough irony, there’s this: as I’m about to receive two degrees, one of which is in Visual Studies, yesterday I struggled a bit to get through an eye exam. For the first time in my life, I’m prescribed glasses… just in time to accompany my Visual Studies degree.

Touching Art

Interactive artwork is great but can also be really awkward and uncomfortable because of the cultural norms we’ve obtained about how to respect art and keep a safe distance. As we grow up and learn about the world, we quickly learn through the scoldings of gallery attendants and others that art is not for touching. Some of it is not even for close viewing, for photographing, for going near with pencils or heaven forbid–a pen. Even if we are allowed to touch it, breathe on it, view it closely or whatever it requests of us, the viewer most often still has to stick to that specific task and do nothing else to deviate from it.

These separate set of rules usually go against our intuition and sense of logic, especially in the case of the innocent child I once witnessed climb on to a Karim Rashid-designed bench that was on display at the Albright-Knox art gallery. A brightly colored and interestingly shaped bench? How inviting and perfect for sitting upon! That is, until the rules intervened. The child was immediately reprimanded at once by both the guard and their mother. I can only imagine the logic employed in of the statement that was made to explain the situation to the kid: “This bench is not for sitting on, it’s ART.”

I didn’t mean to create an interactive piece, but the exhibit at Central Terminal lacked the vigilance of stern gallery guards. Not only that, but displaying art in a crumbling landmark already deteriorated and marked by graffiti probably lends itself to an attitude of less respect. How can you have reverence for urban rubble like this, with its busted-out and boarded-up windows and collapsing ceilings?

Later on in the day of the opening, I found a scrap sheet of paper laying on top of the wall of boxes. It had directions to the Central Terminal from one of the suburbs. Lancaster? I don’t remember. I thought it was odd and took it off. Then I thought that maybe it should stay there. It might have been intentional and this could get interesting.

As the show went on, the 3 shoeboxes opened to display their contents and mounted on the white gallery wall received their fair share of attention. Especially the middle one (containing littered bras) and the last one (with receipts, tags, stickers and Canadian change). A little boy of probably about 9 picked up the bra right out of the box and pressed it to his face for an inhale longer than I would have thought possible for his small size. Did it smell like litter? I’m pretty sure that’s not what he was checking for–or realized that’s what it was. I’m not sure he knew what he was looking for either, but that is a different topic altogether.

Many people played with the Canadian change. I don’t think anyone took any, although I’ve yet to count it and check.

As I packed up the work to transport it home, I found a cup from the drinks that had been served at the opening in the box with the change, and some gum stuck between two boxes in the wall. Again, a little odd and I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Was it put there by someone lazy, someone’s negative reaction to the work or someone who uncovered the secret that this whole work is truly a bunch of garbage, and they had no qualms about contributing to it? It’s not really secret that it’s garbage. They weren’t wrong, but I didn’t expect audience participation. But if expensive art benches can cause the temptation to sit then maybe garbage art inadvertently inspires one to litter.

Conversation

While picking up littered cigarette butts along the John James Audubon Parkway in Amherst yesterday morning, it came up in conversation with the director of Student Life that of all the litter, the cigarettes really dominated our findings. She frustratingly questioned what it was about people that makes them think that once they throw a cigarette out their window, it will just disappear.

Obviously the item itself never truly disappears except to the individual that disposed of it. Instead, it has been passed on to someone else and removed from the original owner’s realm of responsibility.
Hmm.

What makes people think that garbage left in a foreign country will also “disappear” or be erased from their ownership? Is this odd littering phenomenon just the manifestation of apathy and indifference to deferral of responsibility in general, a total disregard for the categorical imperative, or is it that the boundary of consequences for one’s actions mentally corresponds to their national border?

“Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it would become a universal law.”

In this case, act as if only you knew your actions were followed by immediate consequence in the form of artwork? People in cars with Canadian license plates have watched me collect garbage. The act itself feels to be at least partially a performance. If they know, then do they care?

Actual Dimensions

At the time of the show this month, the work itself ended up containing 801 shoeboxes. There were an additional 3 boxes mounted to the wall underneath photographs of the situations these items came from with each mounted shoebox containing a graph and some corresponding found items.

At the base of the wall in the front (the view above begins from the back) were numerous pieces of clothing and 126 pairs of shoes, although 4 individual shoes were without a mate thus making 2 mismatched pairs.

The wall itself in this case was approximately 70 feet long, curving from the entranceway of the Central Terminal into the concourse. It also curves in height, arranged so that the longest boxes (about 2 feet long and usually from the purchase of new boots) are central and the smallest boxes (which contained baby shoes, about 5-6 inches long) are at the edges.

Height at the highest point was taller than the average person. I believe it ended up reaching around or just above 6 feet.

Press

April 13, 2008 (the day of the opening)
Channel 4, WIVB Buffalo, NY 11pm news:

Though I spoke on camera for a few minutes, the few seconds that aired seems to be intentionally edited to exclude the term “Canadian.” With its broadcast easily reaching over the border, perhaps this was to avoid any controversy. I believe that local residents could get the gist of what I was describing just by what was said anyhow. Americans litter, but not usually with their old clothes and shoes.

The Start

With a project that has already been going on for eight months and its first exhibition just wrapping up, it seems like it should be experiencing some closure. Instead it is quite the opposite.