Anne Flournoy, the wonderful writer, director & producer of The Louise Log web series invited me to be part of an on going blog tour. The idea being that each selected blogger introduce in turn three new bloggers as well as respond to four specific questions. I am very sorry to say that I can not fulfill the most important aspect of this project, that is to present to you three new bloggers. When asked by Anne I was immediately thinking of several people. A wondrous Bee Keeper, a world renowned author and couple therapist, a photographer that maintains a delectable last wish food blog and an artist who seems to want to box everything in; I am sure your are intrigued by now and yet, I can not reveal their names as they are so busy traveling the world, getting ready for a talk show, gathering honey and looking for new object to be boxed in, to participate. I then reached out to my friends to gather some blog recommendations and in the process discovered some interesting new writers yet I have received no response to my query so as it is now the day of my deadline all I can do is answer the following questions.
What am I working on?
At this
point I am further developing a performance based project titled "What’s my Worth?" an ongoing project that began as a reaction to the 2008 economic
downturn. I keep track of my spending and savings in a journal, bringing into
view the relationship of financial gain and identity, especially as an artist
and a mother. This lead to a performance that addresses the questions: What is the value of our
work? What are the costs of the choices that we must make? Which projects are viable
and what it is all worth to us? What effect do our choices have on our
environment?
I am also developing “Matière Première” a series of
sculptures created from remains of my work as a mother, including being a
gardener and a laundress.
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
My blogs are an integral component of the remains of participatory
performances and art projects that I have been conducting for the last few
years. Either blog would be included as part of exhibitions featuring either
project; “My Favorite Grandmother” or
“Let’s Take a Walk”.
Why do I write what I do?
In the case of “My
Favorite Grandmother,” I blog so as to convey all the stories that people
have shared with me about their Favorite Grandmother. In “Let’s take a walk” I
give a compte rendu of each of the 34 Twitter guided walk performances I
conducted since 2009; both are text and images based. Aside from my blog, I
write texts and monologues for my performances.
How does your writing process work?
My installation and performances includes text as well
as a variety of media
although I often work on several projects and
spend large amounts
of time developing ideas and in the creation of
installations and sculptures. My writing has a very spontaneous element to it.
Often ideas are formed through movements or during walks in the neighborhood; I
jot down thoughts and sometimes send my self e-mails with a word or a sentence
that is then included in stories in progress. I also use “note to self”, a
recording app that allows me to “jot down” sound, tunes and sentences that are
flittingly going though my mind. My work
has a strong element of public participation, story telling, sharing and
appropriation; texts are formed from those exchanges. A fair amount of rewrites take place during rehearsals and as most of my performances are presented
in several occasions they are in fact work in progress that have this process the
chance to flesh out.
Marie Christine
