If you read my post in March about my fledgling endurance piece Lady Godiva Sucks Oranges, here is a continuation of that performance in a more public setting, with a few other changes. To my initial dismay my classmates and professor were against the idea of using fruit for the reworking of my performance, as strangers could cause far more damage once the barrier of friendship was removed. Thus I came to the solution to use balloons filled with orange juice. However, I accidentally purchased what I can only call "industrial strength balloons" as they took several throws to burst. Some small welts were left that disappeared within an hour, but in retrospect I am glad that the fruit was not an option this time. Being a public spectacle and having objects thrown at you for an hour and a half is not very pleasant, but then again queer people face worser things than water balloons on a regular basis. 
          It was interesting how even when people didn't know me they were still hesitant to throw the balloons at me (even the pitcher for the baseball team had his reservations). To me a balloon didn't seem like a threatening object, but many were worried that they would hurt me, and even took pity after realizing how the juice and water would make me even colder on a cloudy day in May. "I don't want to hurt you", "I'm sorry" "Please don't hate me for this" were some of the more common responses I received. In order to encourage agency on part of the audience I tried to remain silent and unresponsive as possible, mostly shrugging when people asked me questions. It surprised me how many of them took the shrug as a sign that they were not allowed to participate, as if I needed to ask them to assault me. Others took it as a means of stress relief during finals week, but overall there was an overwhelming concern for my wellbeing.
         If I am truly to experience vulnerability then this performance either needs to be done in a gallery space or in a city. There can be no collegiate or friendly barriers hindering the audience, although I suspect that many will still fear for my safety and be unwilling to participate. Perhaps I need to provoke people or put up a sign. But then again, queer people don't ask to be assaulted, they just are by people who deem them to be things that shouldn't exist. Well, only time and opportunity will tell when Lady Godiva will perform again, but next time I guarantee to not stop until either silence or utter chaos is attained. This project needs to be done in a way that has the same power as Yoko Ono or Marina Abramovic, and the audience must lose control. Although, this might just become a piece where the audience created the performance and I am the spectator. We'll see. 

- Noah
Open your mind, be brave, and be kind. 

Paranoia. #36. You can't see them but they can see you. Here are the documented sensations of me feeling that I am being watched.

1. The space between the blinds and my window when I sit at my desk. All the time.
2. The crack in my closet door.
3. Walking along Louther Street at night.
4. My studio when the rest of the lights in the building are off. 
5. Whenever it's quiet...too quiet.
6. Sitting in the caf.
7. Everywhere the moment I turn out the lights. 

Are we paranoid, or is there really something there?

- Noah
Open your mind, be brave, and be kind. 

          One of the latest assignments for my Post Studio Projects class was a text based project. We had already done presentations on certain textual artists and were then given the task of creating and enacting our own work. My artist was Mel Bochner, who works in Yiddish and expletives, using them to reclaim spaces. Thus I decided to expand my exploration of queer art and take a look at Polari, the coded language used by queer men in the 19th and 20th centuries as a means of communicating with each other without being noticed and facing the consequences put in place by society.
​          I had each participant select a word to wear and then gave them a response to use should they be questioned about their shirt. Most of the responses from outsiders have been a mix of confusion and intrigue, with a few unexpected and hilarious results. If you wish to take a further look at the individual participants and their words The Polari Gang (The Code) project can be found in my portfolio in the navigation bar at the top of the screen or by clicking the project title. Please feel free to also learn more about Polari online. While it is not entirely necessary in order to survive (at least in the U.S.) it is a language that is a part of queer history and should be preserved. 

- Noah 
Open your mind, be brave, and be kind. 

          What do we make of the objects that are no longer useful? In a culture that demand constant consumption , but also sustainability, how do we view the broken and unusable things in our lives? For one of my conceptual art assignments, #48: "Imagine an object as an orphan, create an orphanage," I kept an eye out for the things that are lost or thrown away. Some of these are objects that I have used or thrown away. It is strange to view them in this way. We often gain personal attachment to items because of sentimentality or nostalgia, but what happens when you are responsible for these objects that others deemed to be garbage? Perhaps this is borderline hoarding, but I can begin to understand why some people never throw anything away.
          There is also another life behind this object. A person (whether physically or by operating a machine) made this thing we take for granted. It was their job to maintain production and create so we can consume. Thus there needs to be respect not only for the object, but for the person who to some extent made it. If we were to treat all objects with respect, perhaps it would be easier to recycle, more natural to us to try and sustain the environment. Of course, there will need to be some form of restraint, for if we all become hoarders then that impedes recycling. So the next time you see an object on the ground (and this is not an invitation or obligation to pick up the grossest thing you come across), take a moment to think about how and where it came from.

- Noah
Open your mind, be brave, and be kind. 

In addition to the 100 assignments created in the tradition of John Baldessari we were instructed to create an additional 59 and then tailor the list down to the (almost) perfected 109. Remember, these creations are both questions and assignments. 

1. Conjugate a word in a language you don’t know and make a portrait.
2. Inhibit consumption.
3. Create a self-portrait using your favorite/least favorite possessions.
4. Offer a stranger an apple and photograph their response.
5. Reconstruct something out of its opposite.
6. Put your favorite song(s) in a minor key.
7. Portray “adult” themes using elementary school art materials.
8. Change the senses, make someone see a scent or feel a sound.
9. Shave your head or grow your hair.
10. Collect objects from people that they think represent “safety.”
11. Condoms.
12. Have people rearrange your closet and photograph the result.
13. Create a portrait of your worst fear.  
14. Give someone or something a makeover.
15. Induce feelings of doubt. Record.
16. Recreate a nightmare using only one word, image, and object.
17. Use the scientific method.
18. It starts with the light. Follow it. Record.
19. Destroy something precious.
20. Create with your feet.
21. Find the fruit of your loins.
22. “Use me.”
23. Verbalize the unnecessary. In public.
24. Bring attention to the terribly ordinary.
25. Maximize your presence, everywhere.
26. Have a conversation with yourself. Record.
27. Edit your life.
28. Reverse the flow of time.
29. Find the means to break free.
30. Enact a fairytale.
31. Create an art show title from the seventh word on the seventh page of seven books.
32. Sit in the dark and draw what you think.
33. Are dreams in fact reality? Record your dreams and create a blueprint.
34. Try to start a conflict between two other people.
35. A walk in the woods should be relaxing, but in the dark? Who knows?
36. You can’t see them but they can see you.
37. Make music with your feet.
38. Remember the mean kid in school? Be them for an entire day.
39. Give power to good by knowing evil.
40. Create your own season, present with all senses.
41. If ever there were a time to dance now’s the time, in public, bathrooms, everywhere.
42. Limit yourself to only negative words for an entire day, and the rest of the week to positive words.
43. Become a hermit, but your shelter is in a public space.
44. Candy is dandy but tomatoes make great missiles. Demonstrate in a field.
45. They say a picture steals someone’s soul. Steal 100 souls.
46. Pick a word from the dictionary. Scream it at random points during the day.
47. Curate a show based off of a song picked at random.
48. Imagine an object as an orphan. Create an orphanage.
49. Grow a garden in your shoes.
50. If the world were underwater…imagine.
51. Go ahead. Take it.
52. If the slipper fits.
53. Find your despair, now chase it. Give it a rhythm.
54. Build an empire out of paper.
55. Pick a random word in the dictionary and create a movement from it.
56. Fashion a new instrument and attempt to play it, then give it to someone else and see what happens.
57. What would John Baldessari disapprove of? Do it.
58. See how far you can get on a tank of gas.
59. If teas have medicinal properties, try to concoct the cure-all.
60. Become a personal cheerleader for a week.
61. Observe pagan rituals for a whole month. Try and get as many participants as possible.
62. They say to dance to the beat of your heart, but what if you actually did that? Choreograph based on your heartbeat.
63. Do the impossible.
64. Give up.
65. Pull yourself together, get string or something.
66. Say yes to everything until faced with a moral dilemma.
67. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, go the other way. What did you find?
68. Enact the desires of those you hate the most.
69. Prepare your favorite dish.
70. The life of a candle can be fleeting or last an eternity.
71. Play God to the person of your choosing.
72. Give a new name to everything you see.
73. Pick your poison, and then give it to someone else. Does it become harmless?
74. Explore the states of undress.
75. Choose one color and look for it for an entire day and night. How often does it show up?
76. Create a curse, and then create seven blessings.
77. Try to collect time. Can you have all the time in the world?
78. Explore the world at night, how has it changed?
79. You encounter the physical manifestation of stress, what do you do? What will it do?
80. What would you do, or have done to you, in order to become a saint?
81. Thank your body for everything it does. You don’t deserve it. (or do you?)
82. Welcome to our lovely home.
83. Don’t let it in. Don’t.
84. Be horrible, see where it gets you.
85. On the other hand, become poisonously good.
86. Come up with an elaborate plan of murder and betrayal to get what you want. Record how you feel after writing the last step.
87. Birds in the sky and fish in the sea, but what exists in the areas we don’t see?
88. Patent a design that will never work.
89. What does it mean to hate yourself?
90. Find virtue in the smallest of places.
91. Imagine a field as an ocean. How does it move?
92. Gluten.
93. Use a lighter as your source of light for one night.
94. Create your own animal.
95. If you could excel at one thing and one thing only, what would it be? Attempt this.
96. Destroy a relationship with someone you love.
97. See how long you can go without sleep. Draw the same image every six hours.
98. You are only allowed to eat one food for an entire day.
99. Host a pool party. No water allowed.
100. Give your fears a face. Beat it up.
101. Write a letter and translate it into dance, or do the opposite!
102. Become the founder of a new nation. However, you cannot take any land, lives, or anything that does not already belong to you.
103. Disobey seven laws that have already been abolished.
104. Give a punishment that does not fit the crime.
105. Buy the thing you have always wanted. Give it to a stranger.
106. Compose an adagio for a squirrel. Play it for them.
107. Be sticky.
108. Take the first step and then backtrack.
109. Last but not least, don’t forget to scream.