Meaningful Absurd

Something that had currently developed a lot of absurd meaning for Paige was the U of R's Parking Administration. It's a well known fact on campus that Parking Services truly exemplifie the money draining nature of the already exorbitantly expensive University. (Most other colleges have free parking!) After purchasing a pricey parking permit to have a spot that's inevitably 1 mile from anywhere you need to be, Parking Services go out of there way to give excessive $20-$200 tickets for whatever parking violation they see fit. The catch is that you can't receive your hard-earned diploma until you've paid off your parking tickets (whether or not they are deserved). To top that, when you do go to pay off a ticket, the staff is highly rude, somehow acting more irritated by the fact that you got the ticket than you are yourself!
After receiving her own fair share of parking tickets, Paige decided to experience a day in the life of a Parking "Cop." She scanned one of her own tickets and made dozens of copies. All of the violation information was cleared so that she wouldn't be traced back to the ticket. On the bottom though, she added something new, "You can't graduate 'til you pay us, sucka!"
Cloked in a hood, a shady looking Paige went around different parking lots, picking and choosing whichever cars she wished to ticket. She wasn't able to see the first hand reactions of those who were ticketed but she did hear some later feedback. A classmate angrily texted her after the day because she was tricked into believing she actually had an expensive parket ticket, until closely evaluating the slip. A few days later, one of Paige's co-workers had mentioned that her friend had received a bizarre parking ticket, thinking that it was actually the doing of Parking Services! One can only hope that Parking Administration recieved their fair share of complaints and dirty looks.

For the piggybacking assignment, Paige worked off of an Adrian Piper piece, "Whut Choo Lookin At, Mofo?" Piper, had changed her race from Caucasian to Hispanic by using both makeup and costume, and facial and body expression. Paige explained that in her past and present, she has been confused for a plethora of ranging races. These four that have been shown are the ones she has been mistaken for the most.

Paige Berkovitz

For the ritual project, Paige came in to class twiddling rubber balloons between her fingers. At first glance, a fellow classmate inquiried what she was doing to which Paige exclaimed, "I just really love how rubber feels!" Obviously, confusion was felt by the classmate. Throughout the class, Paige continued twirling a bunch of balloons, even though most of the class didn't realize. Eventually, as the class progressed, she began taping the balloons to the wall. The balloons had writing on them such as, "You can't stop!," and "I <3 Rubber!" As the class continued and others presented projects Paige began popping balloons slowly, one after the other.--Eventually, almost of the balloons were popped with the exception of a few; specifically, the ones which expressed that there was no end to the rubber fetish.
The ritual Paige was inacting was that of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. She explained that she had worked with a child in a psychology research lab that was obsessed with rubber, compulsively playing with it to the point of being bribed with rubber to participate in activities. The balloons represented the obsessive thoughts while the twiddling during the class displayed the manifestation of those thoughts, the compulsions. The popping of the balloons was meant to depict an effort to overcome the OCD. In the end though, the never ending concept of the ritual was displayed in the notion that there were still balloons (or obsessions) that were inflated, very much so alive.

Lyuda Didovets

THE IDENTITY PROJECT

For one week Lyuda became Sarah, an Amish girl living through a period of her life known as "rumspringa". During this week she sewed her own Amish outfit, consisting of a long skirt, long-sleeved shirt, and bonnet. Doing her best to not use technology or electricity, she did work under the light of candles and washed her clothes by hand. Lyuda also kept a journal of what it was like having to make a decision choosing her way of life and the many thoughts going through her mind during this time. One of the greatest lessons of the Amish religion is that of humility, and one Lyuda got to experience first hand by living as Sarah this enitire week.

THE PIGGYBACKING PROJECT

Lyuda set up a body print making workshop in a residence hall, inviting students to make their own prints with their bodies. The main theme was the heart chakra which is green and the chakra of 2008. This project allowed people to explore the different paintings they could make using their bodies and encouraged looking into new ways to utilise one's body. In in this project Lyuda was piggybacking artist Annie Sprinkle, who made beautiful breast and belly prints.

PICK UR PLASTIC

For this performance, Lyuda Didovets stood on a black plastic crate in a popular food location at her school. Wearing a black sports bra and black shorts, she also had a strip of black paper over her eyes, making it so that she was unable to see the people around her. On a table next to her was a sign asking for those passing by to help her choose parts of her body that should be altered and circle or mark them using markers. Another sign was an advertisement from a local radio state that read "PICK UR Plastic" and described a contest in which one of the possible prizes was $10,000 of plastic surgery. The main point she was trying to convey wasn't that she hated her body or supported the contest, rather that we are being pushed to want to change our bodies and believe that they aren't pretty or skinny enough. Instead of being taught to love our bodies and appreciate what they do for us we cringe at the thought of showing them off and some of us even go so far as to starve or abuse our bodies to change them.

Please note that the following advertisement is REAL. It is not manipulated in any way by the artist:


In her peformance, Didovets claims that, "The contest is back! Offering an even greater amount of plastic surgery to those lucky enough to care."

Lyuda Didovets' "Free Food"

In this public art intervention, Lyuda Didovets provided a healthy alternative to campus food. In order to do this, she wrapped scores of packages that held vegetable seeds and planting directions so that students could grow their own lettuce, peppers, carrots, and celery. The packages were left in various places throughout campus.

Lauren Schleider

In this performance, Lauren Schleider tried to physically express emotion by chopping onions and eating wasabi while listening to a looped soundtrack of Andrea Bocelli.
Her act became an emotional prosthetic, one that simultaneously produced authentic and inauthentic results.

Geoff Bennington's "Anti-Recycling March"

In the final week of the semester, Geoff Bennington staged an "Anti-Recycling" march across campus with the idea that, if the general public is ignoring pleas for responsible environmental practice, perhaps they'll listen if the argument is reversed. The protesters chanted things like "What are we against? Recycling! What are we going to do? Throw it out!" The posters made statements like "Recycling takes energy, too!", "Plastic is Stronger than Paper!", and "They Threw Out My Baby!"