I got my idea almost immediately. After assessing Heimbold’s visual code, I realized that the building reminded me more of a museum than a place of creation. The white walls, the big empty spaces, and the general sterile vibe this place gives off all made me think of the “white cube” trend.
Here’s my interpretation of Heimbold’s visual code:
I started to think of ways to bring this to light. I looked at museums and all the things that they had in common. I thought about the way they thank their benefactors – by naming a wing or a gallery space after them. I remembered the Barbara Walters Gallery in Heimbold and Lorlee and Arnold Tenenbaum Visual Resouces Wing.
I began to think – what if I named more objects in the building? Arbitrary ones that no one would want to be named after them, like a toilet or a trash can. I got stuck though, and the idea wasn’t really fleshed out until a few days before installation. I had no idea what names to use. First I was thinking of using students names, because we are giving money to the school. But it didn’t seem right and I had no idea who would be okay with me using their name. I considered using celebrities names but to me it seemed like it would take the project in a different direction.
Here’s a picture of the page in my sketchbook where I worked through some of this:
Eventually, after a productive conference meeting, I decided to just make up names. I wanted them to sound as white and affluent and obnoxious as possible. To come up with them I used name generators and looked up lists of high income names.
For the objects to be named, I just picked things that were either unremarkable (like a napkin holder), or kinda funny (like a urinal). My favorite I think was the Josephine Fotheringham and Samuel T. Thornton Tampon Recepticle.
I felt a little awkward putting them up, because a lot of people were staring. Or at least I felt like they were. I kind of wanted to install them in the middle of the night.
Pretty quickly the toilet sticker was taken down – did someone think it was stupid, or did they want to keep it? I’ve been checking on the other stickers (apart from the ones in the mens room, I’m not to keen on walking in and seeing someone using the urinal) and they are all still there. I find I have to rotate the trash can and the recycling bin pretty frequently so the stickers are facing front again. I think the project is most effective if everyone can see all of them.
But I’ll try not to obsess too much, things happen.
Some more pictures of the stickers:
