Assignment 2 - Lisa Goulet

(1) I actually found the works discussed/shown on the festival blog more interesting than the previous year’s works on loneliness; the artists worked in creative ways to express loneliness in manners that I hadn’t thought of. Two standout pieces that I felt reflected vulnerability quite effectively were Corporal Outis’ stalking project, and Jeff Huckleberry’s self-affliction performance.

Corporal Outis managed to perform a piece that was interesting, thoughtful, engaging, and humorous all at once through stalking willing participants as an icon of popular culture. I loved his account of the whole process on his blog, and his reflections of how his own perception of vulnerability changed throughout the piece. His work shows many different types and subjects of vulnerability and poses questions about the society in which we live today. He presents his targets as vulnerable subjects through the surveillance of their homes and workplaces, reminding us all that we are vulnerable and not as invisible as we may assume. I felt a bit voyeuristic while looking through photos of others’ homes and a little uneasy at the  fact that I was looking at very personal  places, yet this is what the general public sees day to day in the area. I enjoyed when the project’s intention was turned on its head and Corporal Outis was finding that uninvolved parties were successfully stalking him, wanting to get a photo taken with the Storm Trooper walking around town. This reverse-stalking tactic was brought upon by social media, and I think is something that resonates with most of us who engage in social media and publish content on the internet, which we don’t usually realize can be used in such a way. Overall, this performance was a great experiment toying with layers of emotional vulnerability.

At the other end of the spectrum, Jeff Huckleberry’s piece explored physical vulnerability, which, honestly, was not something I had really considered when we learned about the festival’s theme. This reflection of vulnerability reminded me of a recent first aid course I took, and how it made me realise just how fragile and vulnerable the human body is. I found it very hard to keep reading Jeff’s piece because it felt dangerous and painful to me, as he pulled apart wood and rolled around in breaking beer bottles.

(2) In my own experience, I don’t believe that vulnerability is something that I stop to contemplate often. I believe that every artist, by putting a piece of themselves, their beliefs and philosophies, which are all reflected in their work, is, puts him or herself in such an inherently vulnerable position. Every medium has the potential for exposure, even if it is the most personal subject meant for only the artist’s eyes, and thus has the potential to cause an uncontrolled reaction from outside individuals, who may or may not understand the work the way the artist has meant it to be understood. I think that is an incredibly vulnerable position to be in, and it’s something that probably comes into consideration when an artist produces every piece they imagine, yet at the same time it is probably something that many artists learn to push to the back of their mind and attempt to ignore. At the end of the day though, vulnerability as an artist is inescapable.

(3) As I said above, Corporal Outis’ work was outstanding in his communication of the emotions of vulnerability. The execution of his piece was somewhere in the middle between art, popular culture, and technological. I think this was the most effective communication of vulnerability, as it was out in public and ended up being very interactive and engaging, even though I was only reading an account of the events. Because a record of his performance remains in the blog he set up, it still carries the character he intended to portray, as opposed to having a third party recount their experience at the other performances. The other pieces were predominantly at the site of the festival, attended by art folk within a short period of time, and some portrayed their ideas in a quite indirect manner. I think these factors alone regardless of the actual performance are less effective personally, as I didn’t get the chance to witness them in person. I can imagine many of the performances would evoke instantaneous feelings as a witness, but they don’t seem to fully translate well into a written format and I found it hard to uncover what ideas about vulnerability they were trying to communicate.