On Final Friday, March 29, I went to Shiftspace Gallery
and to the Fiber Studio Gallery wearing a white shirt that had “Feel free to
write/draw on me” and carrying a range of colorful permanent markers, feeling
apprehensive. I am not much of a
people person; I live in a safe bubble that puts me at arms length from
everyone else. As soon as I
entered, I had people (that I knew) questioning me if it was a genuine
invitation. Soon after that, I had
pretty much everyone who I knew there (the other graduates) drawing on my shirt
at different times. Most chose to
draw on the back, which I had figured would be the case. I had some draw on the sleeves, most
doodled various pictures, I believe only one person actually wrote letters on
it.
I think it would have been more successful if I had asked
people to write on it versus waiting for people to read the shirt and request
to draw on it. I was hoping that
it would start with people I knew, and people would understand that it was part
of the art. However, even with
only people that I knew writing on it, it was still odd stopping and waiting
for people to finish drawing on me before I could move on. Some people told stories of the
characters they were drawing and one drawing led to another to form a
narrative.
It was interesting to see people read the shirt and see
the markers and see others drawing on the shirt but completely ignore me as
well. It did get a different type
of interaction though – a different type of conversation than what I would have
had.
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