Friday, July 10, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
Tea Project
Tea Project is…
Tantamount with discovery
Everyone simultaneously viewing and performing
Appropriating pre-digital interactive relationships
People, not objects
Refining active Participation
Oriented by process
Juxtaposing formality with fun
Examining this assumption: socialization (fun) is impossible without money
Consensual Transformation
Temporary refuge from the commoditized social landscape that surrounds us
Tea Project organizes activities for the enjoyment of participants; however, Tea Project is created mostly by what participants bring with them and what those present become together, rather than what has been previously prepared by the protagonist.
Tea project is what happens at tea project…
People are amazing. So is the world. Change is the only stasis.
(Please make every attempt to resist the rise of the cynical façade.)
Renegade Tea Parties
1.Cold and Wet: Kombucha: Held on the sidewalk at 26th and N.E. Alberta from 6:30-8:20 on
March 30, 2006. 17 people participated. It rained heavily.
2. Pink and Yellow: Held in a vacant lot at N.E. 7th and Knott from 5-7:45 pm on
April 17, 2006. 15 people participated. 4 of them were uninvited but nonetheless welcome.
This location has since become a development of condominiums.
3. Orange and White (With Forest Green Accents): Held in a Grassy expanse off of MLK between N.E. Failing and Beech from 6-8:30 pm on May 16, 2006. 23 people participated. The temperature was in the high 80’s.
4. Black, White and Grayscale: Held on Burnside Bridge from 12-1:25 am on May 27, 2006. 10 brave souls participated. It was colder, wetter and windier than the previous Cold and Wet: Kombucha event by far. The only Tea Party attended and ended by police.
5. Travel and Mystery (With Emphasis On the Mustache): The first multi location event held in a park near Lloyd Center, two bus stops, the #8 bus and Jubitz Truck stop on June 27, 2006 from 7:15-10:00 pm at which time the sprinklers came on next to the sidewalk where we were set up. 15 people participated. Eliza Fernand won the mustache contest.
6. Badminton, Birthday and Birds (White, With Rainbow and Bird Accessories): Held in a dry, dusty field situated between the palatial, condominiums of the Pearl District and a deteriorating industrial landscape on August 5, 2006 from 6-9 pm. 22 people participated. We played badminton even though it was very windy.
7. Favorites and Farewell, End of Summer Show and Tell: Held at the top of Mt.Tabor park (a volcano) facing west on September 27, 2006 from 3-6 pm. 17 People participated. This event was
Focused on the individual. I asked participants to wear their favorite clothing, bring their favorite food and tea and to be prepared for a show and tell time with a favorite object or story
8. Red: NYC Evolutionary Revolutionary (Half-Naked) Tea Party (In collaboration with Red76): Held in Mt. Prospect Park, outside the Brooklyn Museum, the subway, Keara Depenbrock’s car and the house of someone I have never met on November 12, 2006 from 3-7:15 pm. 13 people participated. It rained very hard so we tried to hide under an overhang outside the museum. By then the rain started falling horizontally and everyone was getting soaked. I realized I had forgotten the teakettle. Alethea saved the day. She had the key to her boyfriend’s house (who was out of town). When we arrived there were half-naked people there. They had put their pants in the dryer because they were wet.
9. Emerald City: Green, White and Silver With Unicorn Accessories: Held at Becker’s video production facility on January 11, 2007 from 8:15-11 pm (Tea Ceremony at 8:33 pm.). 80 people participated. I only anticipated 30. Once again everything was entirely different than I imagined even though this event was inside and not weather dependant. We had a slide show featuring all of the previous eight Tea Parties.
Tea Project: Self Portrait 1980 -2007
(PICA - Time Based Art Festival)
01 Recess Tea Party:
1980-1985 (Yellow)
Meriwether Lewis School
SE 45th and Evergreen
Sun. Sept 9, 3:15 pm
Dress: Grey
Bring: Yellow recess snacks to share
02 Silent Tea Party
1986-1997 (Blue)
Reed College
Tues. Sept 11, 2007
Dress: Blue
Bring: Lilies and bubbles
03 Possibilit(ea)y Party
1993-2007 (Red)
Sat. Sept. 15, 2007
Dress: Red
Bring: Bees
Statement
When I buried the past I covered the future
When I focus my intention and make clear, proactive decisions I am more able to be completely and absolutely myself. No one has been me before. No one will be me again. I do the world (and myself) a great disservice if I choose to withhold a full and complete experience of who I am.
My performances are arranged in graduating layers of participation. Those at the table (center) are completely immersed in the experience. As the layers extend, active participation will dissolve into passive participation (viewing only) into unconscious participation (someone reading next door, driving on the freeway, ordering a beer at a bar in Des Moines or playing soccer in Korea). If I allow space for the entire universe to enter into my performance, I acknowledge the universe as an influential, multifaceted and inevitable collaborator in the process of existence.
We all inhabit each second together. Reality is precariously balanced upon each second as if perched on the head of a tiny pin. The seconds fall like dominoes, constantly and consecutively, regardless of our position in space at any given time. The past and the future do not exist except as memory and projection. As each second passes, the reality of the present moves from one moment to the next and then the next and so on. The only reality we can know is in the second we inhabit right now.
The Tea Project Cycle is an exploration of memory and transformation. The ambiguous nature of the past is compared to the uncertainty of the future and balanced (for an instant) in the knowledge of the present.
“I will never be able to relive this day, except in memory.” - M. Kozelek
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