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Hope Project
The Holiday in Hope Project is a fictional fishing village that exists primarily as photographic tableaus. The project is about the logical (and also seemingly illogical) construction of a small social network dependant on a seaside industrial economy. I play all the characters in a series of private solo performances that are photographed and then collaged together, creating a moment in the life of one of the villagers. The town I call Hope consists of an assortment of citizens identified by the their employment that include, among others, Fishing, Sewing, Printmaking, Glovemaking, etc. as well as by activities generated by leisure such as a Card Game or a Dream Competition. Although fictional, the characters are derived from my conscious and subconscious perceptions, desires and experiences. Inspiration for the compositions are culled from daily life as well as from historical works of art and executed in a manner reminiscent of the tableau vivant. With the development of each character comes a new set of conditions for the town, a new set of problems to solve. Although I am tackling it as a kind of fictitious socio-anthropological study, it is layered in an examination of gender perception and its boundaries as well as a study of class economy and it’s affect on this perception. Its online location at holidayinhope.com grounds the town in yet another fiction that of the virtual, and in some ways lends itself to another kind of believability. Part of the growth of the village includes spin-off projects such as the Make-Believe series where the characters of the village act out scenes from historical photographs and more specifically ones involving the threat of death by firearm. The firearm however is fictional, either a stick or a finger, and so the tension pivots on our own belief in the nature of gesture. A photograph taken by an unidentified photographer c. 1920 of a Hunter facing off a wounded and thus dangerous lion inspired the tableau The Hunter.
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