The Waiting Room Projects
http://www.thewaitingroomprojects.org
A Cross-Disciplinary Mixed-Media Collaboration
In 2009 I was privileged with the opportunity to contribute to an exhibition called The Waiting Room: Lost and Found. Since then, my role as a collaborator on the ever-growing Waiting Room Projects has been an immeasurably enriching way to connect to my own voice, experimental practices and media beyond my repertoire, and the voices of others in modes not possible alone. Addressing potently emotional, controversial, and autobiographical themes outside of my established solo “body of work” is liberating and transformative for myself, my family, and everyone the project touches. The challenges I have been afforded in problem solving technically and interpersonally through the collaborative process have not only strengthened my creativity, but solidified my convictions to create and sustain innovative artistic provocations and forums for dialogue surrounding sensitive and difficult subjects. Like my fellow collaborators, I am a maker, writer, and teacher - not a therapist. But ultimately, consciousness, acceptance, healing, and empowerment through connection are my goals. Whether people, structures, places, or ideas, The Waiting Room connects.
Developed and directed by Marguerite Perret (Washburn University), with Bruce Scherting (Biodiversity Institute Natural History Museum) and Robin Lasser (San Jose State University), as well as many others, this multi-faceted investigation of the liminal, metaphoric experience of waiting has had and continues to gain international scope. The project was originally rooted within the context of health issues as they specifically affect women: breast cancer, eating disorders, depression, dementia and domestic violence. As a team we investigate it through historical, scientific, literary, socio-political, and personal lenses. Our conceptual focus has evolved, moving from a waiting as a representation of the cultural female condition into a more broadly abstracted, fluid, spatial/temporal experience of waiting (beyond the boundaries of medical waiting rooms and gender), as developed for an Emotional Geographies conference and The Geography of Waiting exhibit in the Netherlands. Incorporating individual interests and strengths and developing new capabilities together, we undertake three project components: 1) design and construct objects, spaces, imagery, sound, and interactive experiences for exhibit installations; 2) research, compose and manage text, publications, and digital/web-based media; and 3) reach out to engage communities in art and meaning-making activities through workshops, presentations, and events. As we proceed, we anticipate the deepening and broadening of established topics (such as reproductive health), interactive elements, and site/venue-specific opportunities.
To view the book, visit http://data.axmag.com/data/201402/20140213/U34093_F264319/FLASH/index.html
Above Images:
A Waiting Room of One’s Own: Contexts for the Waiting Room Project. Expanded exhibition catalogue (The Waiting Room: Lost & Found) with original essays by the artists, invited scholars and health care professionals; Edited by Sarah Smarsh, 148 color pgs; © 2011; Funded by 2010 Kansas Arts Commission Collaboration Grant, distributed to KU medical students via OCED Book Program, 2012. Details, two Waiting Room Lost & Found Installation Tableaux: Damselfly Chair/Spill, (wood-burned, hybridized chair, community made beaded bracelets for eating disorder awareness; Suspension: Fragmented Patchwork, composition of community & artist crocheted granny squares, found clothing/objects remembering dementia/Alzheimer’s patients. Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library Sabatini Gallery, 2011.
Gray Matters exhibit card: Freud’s Fainting Couch, hybridized 19th century lady’s chaise lounge with Sigmund Freud’s office chair, upholstered with Gray Matters velvet etched with neuron, serotonin, & antidepressant imagery, vinyl, & belts. Detail, Laden, Victorian style opera-length glove of glass beads & crystals. Glore Psychiatric Museum, St. Joseph, MO, 2014.
The Geography of Waiting, Digital slideshow of images submitted to the GeoWaiting Facebook Page, wallpaper of water & waiting words, clear elastic netting with visitor contributed Check-In/Information Form-turned paper boat, vinyl mapping icons. Chairs netted together facing Waiting on the Sea, 20 minute, multi-language, single channel video/sound loop projection, Sound Plant, visitor recording/broadcast by Groningen collective, RadioMobi. Installation view: Waiting Is Everywhere, printed fabric window shades & fragments; Self-Surveillance Station, pulse, temperature, blood pressure & color mood testers, table, forms; Netting. Fourth International & Interdisciplinary Conference on Emotional Geographies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands, 2013.
Speak Loudly Reading Room: Things You Should Know About Booklet Series, installed at The Geography of Waiting with table, light & chairs. 8 booklets developing Waiting Room issues through transcripts, renderings, research & visitor contributions to interactive pieces. Reprolitical, page spread from Things You Should Know About Reproductive Health with Kansas photos & essay. Cameos of Courage, page spread from Things You Should Know About Domestic & Sexual Violence, photos & stories submitted by survivors, digitally altered frames. Fourth International & Interdisciplinary Conference on Emotional Geographies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands, 2013.
Ana Hoodie/Adipose Hanger. Porcelain, underglaze inlay, nylon garment; with Sharon Sullivan. Element of Damselfly Tableau, for Hand Art Center installation at Stetson University, Florida, 2014. Also: Holding On: A Life Jacket (Suspension Tableau), life preserver altered with sewn, crocheted & assembled nostalgic objects, fishing line, & silk flowers that extend onto wall. Taped lines document the opening reception group performance, Measuring Time by the Fates. Waiting Room: Lost & Found exhibit, Topeka & Shawnee Public Library Sabatini Gallery, 2011.
Hankie Boxes, Handkerchiefs printed, embroidered, crocheted & beaded with molecular/cellular diagrams relating to depression & antidepressants, pinned to wood boxes. Invisible, Hanging fabric shelter around broken TV & visitor listening chair/headphones for Surviving, recordings of local domestic violence survivor stories. Guilty Pleasures, crumpled candy/cupcake wrappers & doilies with food secrets written by exhibit visitors after being stuffed through Gut Reaction Chair. Waiting Room: Lost & Found exhibit, Topeka & Shawnee Public Library Sabatini Gallery, 2011.
http://www.thewaitingroomprojects.org
A Cross-Disciplinary Mixed-Media Collaboration
In 2009 I was privileged with the opportunity to contribute to an exhibition called The Waiting Room: Lost and Found. Since then, my role as a collaborator on the ever-growing Waiting Room Projects has been an immeasurably enriching way to connect to my own voice, experimental practices and media beyond my repertoire, and the voices of others in modes not possible alone. Addressing potently emotional, controversial, and autobiographical themes outside of my established solo “body of work” is liberating and transformative for myself, my family, and everyone the project touches. The challenges I have been afforded in problem solving technically and interpersonally through the collaborative process have not only strengthened my creativity, but solidified my convictions to create and sustain innovative artistic provocations and forums for dialogue surrounding sensitive and difficult subjects. Like my fellow collaborators, I am a maker, writer, and teacher - not a therapist. But ultimately, consciousness, acceptance, healing, and empowerment through connection are my goals. Whether people, structures, places, or ideas, The Waiting Room connects.
Developed and directed by Marguerite Perret (Washburn University), with Bruce Scherting (Biodiversity Institute Natural History Museum) and Robin Lasser (San Jose State University), as well as many others, this multi-faceted investigation of the liminal, metaphoric experience of waiting has had and continues to gain international scope. The project was originally rooted within the context of health issues as they specifically affect women: breast cancer, eating disorders, depression, dementia and domestic violence. As a team we investigate it through historical, scientific, literary, socio-political, and personal lenses. Our conceptual focus has evolved, moving from a waiting as a representation of the cultural female condition into a more broadly abstracted, fluid, spatial/temporal experience of waiting (beyond the boundaries of medical waiting rooms and gender), as developed for an Emotional Geographies conference and The Geography of Waiting exhibit in the Netherlands. Incorporating individual interests and strengths and developing new capabilities together, we undertake three project components: 1) design and construct objects, spaces, imagery, sound, and interactive experiences for exhibit installations; 2) research, compose and manage text, publications, and digital/web-based media; and 3) reach out to engage communities in art and meaning-making activities through workshops, presentations, and events. As we proceed, we anticipate the deepening and broadening of established topics (such as reproductive health), interactive elements, and site/venue-specific opportunities.
To view the book, visit http://data.axmag.com/data/201402/20140213/U34093_F264319/FLASH/index.html
Above Images:
A Waiting Room of One’s Own: Contexts for the Waiting Room Project. Expanded exhibition catalogue (The Waiting Room: Lost & Found) with original essays by the artists, invited scholars and health care professionals; Edited by Sarah Smarsh, 148 color pgs; © 2011; Funded by 2010 Kansas Arts Commission Collaboration Grant, distributed to KU medical students via OCED Book Program, 2012. Details, two Waiting Room Lost & Found Installation Tableaux: Damselfly Chair/Spill, (wood-burned, hybridized chair, community made beaded bracelets for eating disorder awareness; Suspension: Fragmented Patchwork, composition of community & artist crocheted granny squares, found clothing/objects remembering dementia/Alzheimer’s patients. Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library Sabatini Gallery, 2011.
Gray Matters exhibit card: Freud’s Fainting Couch, hybridized 19th century lady’s chaise lounge with Sigmund Freud’s office chair, upholstered with Gray Matters velvet etched with neuron, serotonin, & antidepressant imagery, vinyl, & belts. Detail, Laden, Victorian style opera-length glove of glass beads & crystals. Glore Psychiatric Museum, St. Joseph, MO, 2014.
The Geography of Waiting, Digital slideshow of images submitted to the GeoWaiting Facebook Page, wallpaper of water & waiting words, clear elastic netting with visitor contributed Check-In/Information Form-turned paper boat, vinyl mapping icons. Chairs netted together facing Waiting on the Sea, 20 minute, multi-language, single channel video/sound loop projection, Sound Plant, visitor recording/broadcast by Groningen collective, RadioMobi. Installation view: Waiting Is Everywhere, printed fabric window shades & fragments; Self-Surveillance Station, pulse, temperature, blood pressure & color mood testers, table, forms; Netting. Fourth International & Interdisciplinary Conference on Emotional Geographies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands, 2013.
Speak Loudly Reading Room: Things You Should Know About Booklet Series, installed at The Geography of Waiting with table, light & chairs. 8 booklets developing Waiting Room issues through transcripts, renderings, research & visitor contributions to interactive pieces. Reprolitical, page spread from Things You Should Know About Reproductive Health with Kansas photos & essay. Cameos of Courage, page spread from Things You Should Know About Domestic & Sexual Violence, photos & stories submitted by survivors, digitally altered frames. Fourth International & Interdisciplinary Conference on Emotional Geographies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands, 2013.
Ana Hoodie/Adipose Hanger. Porcelain, underglaze inlay, nylon garment; with Sharon Sullivan. Element of Damselfly Tableau, for Hand Art Center installation at Stetson University, Florida, 2014. Also: Holding On: A Life Jacket (Suspension Tableau), life preserver altered with sewn, crocheted & assembled nostalgic objects, fishing line, & silk flowers that extend onto wall. Taped lines document the opening reception group performance, Measuring Time by the Fates. Waiting Room: Lost & Found exhibit, Topeka & Shawnee Public Library Sabatini Gallery, 2011.
Hankie Boxes, Handkerchiefs printed, embroidered, crocheted & beaded with molecular/cellular diagrams relating to depression & antidepressants, pinned to wood boxes. Invisible, Hanging fabric shelter around broken TV & visitor listening chair/headphones for Surviving, recordings of local domestic violence survivor stories. Guilty Pleasures, crumpled candy/cupcake wrappers & doilies with food secrets written by exhibit visitors after being stuffed through Gut Reaction Chair. Waiting Room: Lost & Found exhibit, Topeka & Shawnee Public Library Sabatini Gallery, 2011.