ruminating...

I thought that I could install everything on Friday evening but in reality, I needed Saturday and Sunday to place letters in between converstations. I thought that this was frustrating at first, but people really seemed to like to talk and were some how confused about what materials I was using for the lettering. Most people thought that I had stencilled on the quote rather than hand-cut sign vinyl. People were also confused about the lettering to the side thinking that I was using some kind of Islamic calligraphy. Especially the "moon and star" tile to the right of the second "13" which is actually an upside down right quotation mark and a period. Double-edged punctuation?

Alphabet Soup!

I am charging my batteries and sorting my letters. I wish I had thought of this while I was cutting! I will take more pictures this afternoon as things progress.

bigger heap of letters

Quaint?

As I am STILL cutting and listening to the news, I wonder if it is quaint to talk about the neighborliness of strangers. Bombs, bombings, fighting, terrorism...I think that this is all the more reason to talk about the neighborliness of strangers. Do we want our cities to be spaces of fear or of connectivity?

STRANGER ESTRANGEIRO!

While I have been cutting all day I have been thinking about "To You" and why I like it so much. I am also wondering about parallels between Whitman's city in 1900 and cities 106 years later.

I have found some clarity by reading the transcript of a lecture by the urban sociologist Richard Sennett.

Richard Sennett: Capitalism and the City

Sennett points to the "interactive complexity" of cities. He feels that one of the great virtues of urban settings is their diversity—they are places where we learn to live with strangers. Sennett adds that this interaction with diverse classes, cultures, languages, and races stimulates societies and expands lives. But, he also cautions that the "standardization of public consumption" has caused a neutrality of public spaces, which in turn diminishes the complexity of modern cities. It is more difficult to discover the strange and unexpected.

I like this poem so much because it is so relevant. Whitman asks his audience in 1900 to choose a space of self-knowledge rather than one of fear by welcoming the strange and unexpected.

Even though our cities, workspaces, consumption, and time have been standardized by capitalism and, terrorism has created spaces of fear in our cities, Whitman's poem reminds us to aspire to the neighborliness of strangers by finding new ways to engage with cities and with the people who live in them.

Alley Jaunt also seeks to reinvigorate our relationships to our city by giving viewers and artists a “passport” to venture off the grid and
(re-)engage with the nooks and crannies of our city.

Yikes!

Scrambling to cut out vinyl letters but just realizing that I did not mention that the poem that I am using in my installation is called To You by Walt Whitman in Leaves of Grass, 1900.

heap of letters

slowly cutting out letters using my lucky olfa cutter...bit of a hangover today...

Count down: 1 week to go

After spending a day researching vinyl stickers and mylar stencils, I have decided that hand-cut vinyl will be the cheapest and fastest (!) thing to do. It only costs my time, some printer ink, and my knuckles! I hope I don't end the week with grizzled fingers.

I have started to cut out the letters and it is strangely soothing...can still think about the tiles and how I will handle the patterning. Any thoughts?

Maybe this is it?

Experiments:

more orderly and possible press type text?

From Miguel Batista: Translation

13: To You:

STRANGER! if you, passing, meet me, and desire to speak to me, why
should you not speak to me?

And why should I not speak to you?

13: A Ti:

ESTRANGEIRO! se, de passagem, me encontrares e desejares falar comigo, porque
não hás-de falar comigo?

E porque não hei-de eu falar contigo?

the one thing i had trouble with was "stranger", which meant something different in the context in which the bard used it. in the 19th century, it meant someone who was either from another nation or from another state, city, etc. now it means something else, of course.

i think whitman didn't use it to refer to someone from a foreign country, but to someone who simply was not from his dwelling place. in portugal, however, we don't have that notion: the word "estrangeiro" means somebody from another country only.

Ganesh Break

Held together with hot glue...

don't like the final effect, but will play some more now...

Pattern Play

some more experiments with the fence idea...like some of the pattern, but need to play more with text and designs...i was so excited to be chosen for the AJ, now comes the headache of turning your concept into reality! JOY!

curtain washed fence

I tried to image the curtain on the fence and then put the poem over it just to see what it looks like. I am doing some freehand drawings now to try to work through this idea in my mind. Overpreparation is my middle name!

I am thinking paper or thin vinyl to cut the shapes out although painting would be easiest...I decided that i like ephemeral...

lace curtain

this is the lace curtain that i am thinking of using for the patterning on the fence to riff on traditional portuguese azulejos. i am not sure if it is ugly...but i still like it.

the blue fence

Have found my fence. The entire alley is too much space for only a few weeks of preparation. I have a friend who will translate the Walt Whitman poem into Portuguese for me. The alley I will work in is in Toronto's Portuguese section and many of the residents speak little or no English. Art is weird enough for people and intrisically sets language barriers and I do not want to create another level of isolation for the work--especially one that depends on good neighbors.

I am thinking of finding a graphic way to depict and paginate the poem maybe riffing on portuguese tlle patterns?

alley jaunt

So much for achievable goals!

I am working on some ideas for the alley jaunt in Toronto in August. I will install in the alley between Montrose and Beatrice. It is grey and rainy today, so no visits to the space but take some photos when the sun comes out. My idea for the AJ is to paginate the poem To You by Walt Whitman along the fence. I have to decide what materials to use that can sustain rain (if possible), wind and how to place it. I have about a month to make it.

achievable goals

So many ideas, so little time...I have decided that while I attempt to build a website I will blog a thought a day to see what happens

new drawing