May 18/2011
In a humorous attempt to confront the urban uniform, I aim to ease the mysticism that surrounds “cool”, as well as alter the disposition of those who critique hip culture. I propose to organize an adventure through the streets of Canada to ask hip and fashionable individuals if they would participate in a photographic project entitled: “Young Attractive Cool People”. I would encourage participants to join this adventure in groups and individually, performing photographic acupuncture, that is- to release certain tensions and preciousness indicative of the urban uniform through a collaborative intervention.
I have experimented with this project by taking to the streets of Toronto, proposing such an interaction to fashionable citizens in the metropolitan area. To my delight, the gaze of each individual, for the most part, is read as welcoming and sincere. The interaction prompts an intentional transformation of the mystic lens, which in turn, humbles the fabric of contemporary urban culture. Both the subject and the critic acknowledge their roles as contributors in this dynamic. If subscribing to cool aesthetics is an inward cultural phenomenon, then being above or beyond the urban uniform is surely in it's own right, a form of pretentiousness which the critic subscribes to.
I propose that the photographs collected over a time span of one year, take form as a collective portrait display in a gallery or public space. The images would accumulate to a large grid attached to the wall using acupuncture pins in each corner of the photos.
With this work I hope to create a new gravity for acknowledging aesthetic stereotypes while releasing certain blockages which prevent healthier social dynamics among urban inhabitants.
May 18/2011
In a humorous attempt to confront the urban uniform, I aim to ease the mysticism that surrounds “cool”, as well as alter the disposition of those who critique hip culture. I propose to organize an adventure through the streets of Canada to ask hip and fashionable individuals if they would participate in a photographic project entitled: “Young Attractive Cool People”. I would encourage participants to join this adventure in groups and individually, performing photographic acupuncture, that is- to release certain tensions and preciousness indicative of the urban uniform through a collaborative intervention.
I have experimented with this project by taking to the streets of Toronto, proposing such an interaction to fashionable citizens in the metropolitan area. To my delight, the gaze of each individual, for the most part, is read as welcoming and sincere. The interaction prompts an intentional transformation of the mystic lens, which in turn, humbles the fabric of contemporary urban culture. Both the subject and the critic acknowledge their roles as contributors in this dynamic. If subscribing to cool aesthetics is an inward cultural phenomenon, then being above or beyond the urban uniform is surely in it's own right, a form of pretentiousness which the critic subscribes to.
I propose that the photographs collected over a time span of one year, take form as a collective portrait display in a gallery or public space. The images would accumulate to a large grid attached to the wall using acupuncture pins in each corner of the photos.
With this work I hope to create a new gravity for acknowledging aesthetic stereotypes while releasing certain blockages which prevent healthier social dynamics among urban inhabitants.