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