In Transience
The final installation for In Transience consists of cardboard signs
used in the performance as well as a video projection of footage from
our 8-hour durational performance. The performance extends momentary
encounters with the public through the platform of panhandling.
Performers, accompanied with cardboard signs and paper cups, were placed
on sidewalks in areas with heavy foot traffic, specifically sites of
public transit and tourism (e.g., train stations, the downtown business
district, municipal buildings, State Street shopping district, The Art
Institute of Chicago). The performance embodies the labor of panhandling
as performers move from site to site over the course of an 8-hour work
day. Using cardboard signs, performers subvert the public's expectations
and assumptions of panhandling by confronting onlookers and passersby
with a voice that speaks to identity, place, and marginality. In
Transience is a performative gesture asking the public to re-examine
their assumptions about need/provision, home/homelessness, and issues of
visibility.
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