Materials:
- Two Hula Hoops
- Two People
Approach random people asking if they will hula-hoop with you. Hope that they say yes and will hula-hoop with you.
OR
Find a position in the commons and start Hula-hooping. Hope that people see your sign and join in.
Attempt Number One:
This occurred at the commons on March 21st, 2016. It was a quiet Monday night and it was a little late, about 7:00 pm. I was with a friend and we prepared to have a night of pure fun and hula-hooping.
This a collection of the most interesting results. There were about double the encounters but the rest were not memorable, usually people just looked, said no, and walked on their way.
Stranger One and One and a Half: Two people were walking together when approached with the question. Neither people responded and both continued walking and one turned to the other to say: “That is probably what Bernie Sanders’ fans look like”
Stranger Two: One person approached and was genuinely interested with what I was doing. Thought I was doing something having to do with slut shaming. Did not want to hula-hoop with me.
Stranger Three: One man was approached and politely said no. He proceeded to tell me he reminded me of his daughter.
Stranger Four: Looked like he really wanted to hula-hoop with me but said he was late for a friend’s party. He proceeded to leave.
Though there was no hula-hooping involved, this act really did interrupt the space and cause for some conversation (which is what I wanted to achieve anyways). I still wanted to see if anyone would hula-hoop with me if it was in the daylight so I tried again.
Attempt Number Two:
This time I was prepared. It was a nice breezy Sunday. It was nice outside and people were walking around. Tourists were everywhere. A perfect situation to talk to people.
I set out a sign, it read HULA HOOP WITH ME. I had another hula-hoop sitting around. I started with having my friend record people but I got no one to hula-hoop with me. Just a bunch of people staring at me hula-hooping. When I asked her to stop recording a couple of people joined in.
This encounter will be recorded through writing for those reasons. It was probably for the best considering many children were the ones to hula-hoop while their parents watched from close-by. It was Easter Sunday and they were all in their little dresses and dress slacks. One parent joined in and I allowed him to hula-hoop with his son.
Overall:
I was really glad to see people participating. It really does help that it wasn’t on a late Monday night. More people were friendly and everyone seemed to have a good time.
Artists Statement
I wanted to start a conversation with people, I wanted them to stop what they were doing and live in the present with me. In this aspect I set out to achieve what I wanted to during the first run through.
I was inspired greatly by the videos shown in class about the Yes Men and some of the readings and artwork by Yoko Ono. Yes Men inspired me because they are all about creating conversation and leaving things up to interpretation. Yoko Ono inspired me because her art is very much about the process and not the end product. I wanted my piece to be about the moment, taking people out of their heads and into the present with me.
Documentation was difficult and overall I am happy that I chose to write rather than photograph. Taking photographs would take away from the moment I was hoping to establish with the participants (also many of the participants were children and it is really weird to ask parents if you can take pictures of their child).