Feed the Soul
For this project, there were no changes from the first to the final iteration. This is just a documentation of the project, along with some picture proof, and the artist statement.
So the intervention was to dress up as a “pigeon” and to feed people’s souls. By that I mean to enrich people’s lives, or somehow make them brighter, if for just a moment. The way I would do this is by dressing up, and then distributing pieces of candy that have nice notes written on them.
This is me in the bird costume (ignore the messy room):
I was going for a simplistic design, and the word pigeon was written to really get my point across.
This was my feed bag that was filled with candy:
I wrote feed because it reminded me of bird feed bags, but here it’s people feed.
What I gave out were these pieces of candy:
They are starbursts wrapped in notes, which I would hand out notes and handfuls of just starburst.
There were many more notes than pictured here:
Various things from; “You’re awesome”, to “If you were an apple I’d pick you”, “You are unique, never forget that”, and just many more compliments and words of encouragement.
I went to Curry and the library. On the way there I bumped into some people, and the first person I met, I made him take a picture with me, he was confused until I told him it was an art piece:
Then I took selfies in Curry and the library:
I changed my shirt into something warmer,
And then I walked around and interacted with people,
I tried not to anger anyone and wasn’t able to take many photos
At the library on the first floor, there were two kids who wanted to take pictures with me which was awesome:
They asked me what I was doing, and I explained that it was an art piece in a game design class. In return I asked them for their thoughts on the notes, and the candy. They were happy to receive candy, and the kind notes made them smile, which made me really happy, the overall goal of this intervention being the spread of happiness.
I didn’t get to stop and chat with every person I gave candy to. But regardless there were many people who said thank you. I got a lot of looks of confusion, and once people read the notes, they smiled and then kind of went on their way. People who were just walking by either rejected me and didn’t take the candy, or said quick thank you’s and continued on. A group of girls were sharing their notes and laughing about it. All in all, I think this was a two way intervention. I intruded into people’s lives for the moment and hopefully made it brighter for a bit, and at the same time people being happy, made me happy.
For this work I was influenced by several different artists and groups. In some ways I was influenced by Yoko Ono and her performance art. She brought the audience directly into her art, and in a way I did a similar thing, except I brought the art to the audience. Also, I feel what I did could have been a score that came from her book Grapefruit. I also like to think that Keith Haring somewhat influenced me, with the subway drawings he did, which in a way brightened people’s days without being too intrusive. My goal was to add something to people’s lives, be it a smile, a laugh, or even just positive thinking. Also groups like Improv Everywhere and the Yes Men definitely inspired me with their outlandish idea’s and interventions that really pushed the envelope. There was also a comedian, and I would argue, artist, Remi Gaillard, who did many different stunts that include animal suits and all kinds of antics, and I feel that subliminally I could have been influenced by his work. I think that the culmination of many different interventions led me to want to being joy to others, while doing it in an off-beat maybe funny way.