Schlawg Blawg

 THE SISYPHUS DERBY     On November 21, 2024, I held the world's first ever Sisyphus Derby. The premise was simple: we would push people up and down a hill in rolling chairs. It was a bit tougher than expected, and we only had two chairs, so not a ton of pushing got done. That was the point. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Zhr94UPb64PtzZbvjJO8pExd6l1KLuTt/view?usp=drive_link     This work was originally inspired by the myth of Sisyphus, and the absurdity and madness of his circumstances, along with the phrase "one must imagine Sisyphus happy". Why is Sisyphus happy? Necessity. His circumstances won't change so he has to, in a true act of madness, be happy in spite of his misery, there's no way he can go to happiness at the top of the mountain, as he knows he will never arrive, so he must be content in his current misery, if he wishes to be happy at all. So do we.     Suffering is a cycle, and comes back to use over and over, no matter how many times w...

 Confession Release and Restoration      The project was simple. Participants would interact with the "confessor" by admitting anything secretive to them, one at a time. The confessor, who will remain anonymous, was covered head to toe in two blankets and was completely blind and deaf to the room around them. I was hoping this would seem a little comfier and easier to approach, but I understand now with feedback, it made our subject ominous. Thankfully, people still seemed happy to engage.       After releasing whatever the people were holding onto, I handed each of them a portrait purely from memory. No reference of any kind. While this reflects partially on my need to practice more, it mainly reflected the unchanged idea of the person in my mind. The goal was to show that while something in the person might have changed due to the release, nothing about them changed to someone else, letting them stay in the somewhat security of an unchanging ide...

'Scuse me  Do you have a minute? I was wondering if you could help me do a quick interview for an art class. "No. Sorry. Thank you." "I'm going to meet someone actually" "..." Awesome thank you so much. What's your name? Nice to meet you my name's Gray. Yeah I study art at Westmont college right up the hill. Yeah It's for a class called 4D Intermedia. You know how art is like paintings and drawings and photography and music and stuff like that? Well this is all the art that's not like that like performance and... Yeah exactly. Well I don't really have a specific set of questions to ask you but I was just wondering kinda what brings you here today? No I mean like here specifically at the beach. Yeah. Yeah. The Concept     During first semester junior year I would go to the beach at least once a week. I needed relaxed time alone, and with a consistent cycle of people in my room, I couldn't find it there. I would try to aim for...

 10/8/2024 Vitriol     At least on Westmont campus, this is my most hated creation.     I'm sure I will exceed myself in the future, but I heard many complaints from all sorts of people that did not know I was a part of this project. I feel like it should have hurt my feelings more, but I found it amusing and interesting. I was really curious about how people would interact with a minor inconvenience in their lives, and they got angry. It was also fun to hear what people thought it might be about, and see how dramatically their thoughts changed once they were "in on it". People went from irritated to the same amused feeling I had.     Some people thought it was a social experiment, while others thought it was a commentary on the separation of the senior class from the rest of the school (which was "so dumb" in their opinion). One friend of mine, when they discovered I made it, played around with the curtains. Eventually the curtains were split by peopl...

 CIRCLES      When I was younger, I was desperate to understand other people, so I would look at them and infer what I could by reflecting my lived experience onto the,. This is how I learned that people could understand Spanish (since I could understand English). When I got a little older, I began to notice the differences more often, so I would try the inverse to figure out myself, and why the differences exist. I still don't. I want to.     I see circles everywhere. I don't quite understand what it means, and why we live our lives in loops, but I want to understand. This is part of that.  For all the computers I've worked with, I still can't figure out how to move the images.     Personally, I feel pretty dissatisfied with the project so far. I feel as if there's still something missing, but that is part of the point: trying to identify what I don't understand, and also connect with people there. That's why I wanted to bring people in to w...

  For this Piece     For this piece I played with perspective, reflection and inversion. And played is really the perfect word. I was just messing around with the pieces and seeing what fit, what worked and what it could turn into. The perspective is constantly imperfect now, but I enjoy that. That imperfection makes that "right perspective" impossible to find, but I really love that. You can still understand the point and how it reflects and stretches into space, but now it has another dimension added. I had fun. :)