The Black Bread Tag Invasion 2008

The Bread Tag is an icon of our societies endless craving for nourishment; physical, emotional, or spiritual.  The Bread Tag is also a tool to keep our nourishment fresh whilst we construct and devour the sandwich of life.

During recent IUFT missionary work in South East Asia, members conducted a social intervention project in several countries.  The purpose was to pass on the strength and resourcefulness  of the mighty Bread Tag to cultures that are unfamiliar with this foreign object.

Unlike our society, the indigenous people of these countries were well nourished; physically, emotionally, and spiritually, before our intervention,  but unlike our society they do not endlessly crave the bread of life. 

As a result, this powerful icon was placed on t-shirts and printed black; the colour that contains all colours, to represent the strength of the individual.  The shirts were distributed to people who embrace each day and keep it fresh, despite of having no Bread Tags.

The intervention will last the lifetime of the shirts, but the Black Bread Tag invasion will be felt forever.

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The Do Not Disconnect Audio Tour - Sept/Oct, 2007

I'm in a group show called Do Not Disconnect with a group of fiber grad students, and my contribution to the show is not dissimilar with the works I did with the Free Thinkers, so I thought I could call this an IUFT intervention. Also, I'm posting the audio tracks here so people can load them onto their own media player when they visit the gallery.

The statement:
Yes, there is an audio tour for this exhibition. During the tour you will hear each artist talk about their artistic practice, everyday life, and the connection between the two. The purpose of this tour is to break down the barrier between the artist and the audience, and in turn promote communication in this earnest and generous gesture. The audio tracks consist of informal conversations rather than the traditional authoritative interview.

You, dear listeners, will be given unfiltered and unadulterated insights into the artists’ minds. Dig it!

This audio tour is an intervention facilitated by Chris Lin, who recorded everyone in the two weeks prior to the opening. The artworks may have changed since the conversation: this is just a natural by-product of documenting a specific time.

Tracks in alphabetical order:
(Right-click and save)
Alee Peoples
Chris Lin and Julie Boyer, collaborator
Eun Hyung Kim
Kim Jackson
Margarita Benitez
Michael Ruglio-Misurell
Rachel Moore and James Knittle, collaborator
Rana Siegel
Shannon Schmidt and Kim Jackson, performer

That is all.

Jimmy's Long Goodbye

Jimmy had struggled with the loss of his dear friend Eerie. It took a year for Jimmy to succumb to his broken heart. We all could sense that the end was near for Jimmy; we all knew he had thrown in the towel. Jimmy was not going to check out without one last final hurrah, if not for himself then for Eerie. The cardboard community has taken another tragic blow. Our societies inability to accept those different from ourselves has claimed yet another life. You will be missed Jimmy, but not forgotten.

Green Telephones: An Intervention - November 2006

Green payphones are functionless, similar to the now purposeless, obsolete payphones. I have been in Chicago for 3 months now, and I've seen 2 people used payphones. Green payphones only point out what is not there.

New statement:
If I have quick reflexes, I would commit every crime as a hobby, but I don’t. So for now, all I can do are petty crimes, obscure, insignificant crimes... I take one orange, nobody notices. I take another, nobody notices. Eventually the shelf is half empty and you realize it! But you don’t remember what I look like.

Good art shouldn’t look like art at all.
The unassuming things in life are not art, but the act of finding them is.
Therefore art materializes internally.
Inappropriate sounds.
Impromptu additions to architecture.
Green telephones.

If art is permanent, it won’t grow.
Performances are ephemeral, good films are open.
A seasoned killer acts slowly, plays a game,
rides the merry-go-around
flirts with his victim,
eats some popcorn,
gets on the boat,
waits for his chance.

For Eerie - 09/22/2006

For Eerie... An IUFT Laundry Installation
1442 Haultain Street, Victoria BC
Sept 22-28, Opening Friday the 22nd

On July 19th, 2006 the IUFT cremated one of our fearless comrades. Eerie Humming was a pioneer and martyr. Eerie struggled to find his place in our world, he attempted to carve himself a niche, but despite his endless efforts, he failed. Eerie was found dead from excessive disappointment. His greatest disappointment was society’s inability to accept him as an equal. Eerie faced discrimination at every turn. He tried to assimilate into our cultural consumption machine, but was spat out.

Eerie just wanted to enjoy the mundane ‘chores’ that we all take for granted. The simple task of washing his clothes brought such joy to Eerie. However, the Laundry facilities were not welcoming to our cardboard friends and refused to serve them.

Eerie’s only wish was to fit in, to wash his clothes in peace. The IUFT failed to save Eerie, but our hope is to avoid further fatalities in the cardboard community. We constructed a place for our buddies to feel accepted, even if is only until their laundry is finished.

Two Chicago Projects

Chris’s Funeral / Saddest Song You've Ever Heard
Chicago, IL
Date Unknown

During the data-retrieval phase of my funeral project, I’ve received several responses about the interviewees’ song choices at their funerals. “Free Bird” and “Wind Beneath My Wings” are some of the most common choices out there. Is it a coincidence that we think dying is heavily connected with flying, as if dying is an act of thrusting upwards and severing any connection with the earthly world? But that’s not important at the moment.

What I’m investigating is what makes a song funeral-friendly? Although I have pretty much settled on my song choice (“Free Bird” with extended organ solo!), I am wondering whether or not the song decides the mood of the whole event. But a funeral is a sad event, and maybe even if a uplifting song is played people will still feel sad. What are the criteria?

On this day: September 16, 2006, my answer would be that choice wholly depends on the memory. The song may not even be about dying, but it may recall some memory with friends and families. Another guess would be that the song has to be a description of the deceased.

On the same note, I’ve come to think about the saddest song I’ve ever heard, and I’m collecting data from people that I know. Those songs might not make it to my funeral, but I’m interested to see what are people’s criteria for sad songs, as well as their choices for the saddest song ever. Eventually I plan to make an audiobook with the responses.

The funeral will take place when the planning phase is done. At this stage I plan to feature a few objects in the intervention, including photographs and paintings of myself, a small monument, and costumes. The main event will be the reading of eulogies by the people in attendance. The entire process is highly collaborative to the point that I’m not sure whether it’s my work or not anymore. But the work is ABOUT me, and for that’s a different challenge than having the work done BY me.

Please send me some writings, whether it’s an eulogy/elegy or your saddest song you’ve ever heard. There are no deadlines, but the sooner the better. I’m open for discussion and suggestion as well. And if you think you don’t know me well enough, we should start hanging out more!

ahcri@yahoo.com

Eerie's Funeral - 07/19/2006

Eerie Humming, a visionary, a revolutionary, and most importantly, a friend, was found dead from excessive disappointment. This is a man who is reserved but passionate about his ideal. This is a man who would rather eat crackers than soup. On July 19, we sent him on his way in an intimate funeral where he was cremated. To us, he is still alive: He's still here in my heart, and my heart will go on and on.

Related readings: Céline Dion

E Awards - 02/28/2006

Eerie Humming shows the Victoria art community how could someone so obscure be a runner-up in the Best Art Installation category at the 2006 M Awards: He does so by showing up in all of his glorious awesomeness. On February 28th, Eerie, Chris and Stephen attended the M Awards ceremony (and lost). Nevertheless, there is a good chance you may catch Eerie and Chris on the streets of Victoria in the upcoming months. Say hello, don't spit. Cardboard wrinkles.

UPIIDD - ONGOING

UPIIDD stands for Unauthorized Public Instalation and Internet Display and Distribution. The project is an experiment in the crossover between the virtual space and the analogue world. Ideas that begin in the analogue imagination, get created and disseminated in virtual space, then recreated for the "real" world in the form of toys and merchandise. I take that by-product, and re-establish it into an appropriate context in the analogue world, then redistribute via the virtual.

Another project from our Ottawa-bureau is Peoples, which involves gluing photographic portraits of peoples at random places. It is a way of capturing a moment in someones virtual echo, and letting it resonate a little more. It is also comforting to know, as any respectable free-thinker should, that everyone can participate the Peoples project, all you need to do is to request a kit by via the IUFT mail hub and start gluing!

Puppet City - 10/11/2005

... and Eerie said: "We must construct a new city far away from this dreaded town." Puppet City will be defined by its inhabitants, who will never be alone as they will always be accompanied by their Cardboard Buddies . No new buildings will be built, insteads new personae will emerge in a preexisting city (AKA New Smyrna Beach, Florida), as "the 'nuclear units' of new politics must be the citizen... it embodies the ideal of philia, autonomy, rationality, and above all, civil committment." [Clark: Municipal Dreams] The audiences and participants' ears and minds will be "educated unconsciously." [Leavis: Fictions and the Reading Public] Are we just a bunch of Utopian Socialists with delusions of grandeur?

Fuck no! After three weeks of intense transformation, we have proved that a cardboard community will work in today's society. Here are some photographic evidence in case you don't believe me.

Related readings: Buddy Manual, Atlantic Center for the Arts