Basic instructions for this event: come into the space - write a task on a piece of paper - put the task into the the task box - then draw a task out of the task box - make/do/interpret the drawn task in any manner that you choose, using yourself and/or any of the materials or parts of the gallery you want.
I drove down to Normal with the Visual Arts Seminar class from the University of St. Francis. We visited the Ann Coulter show at the McLean County Arts Center first, then ate lunch at the Coffeehouse. We arrived at the TASK Party at around 1:45pm and left when it ended, around 5:00pm. I felt pretty good about a few tasks that I submitted (notably: "It's hammer time - you know what to do," "Kiss someone," "Draw your favorite state on someones face," "Tell Oliver Herring he is cute," and "Put this task back in the box." I created a few things that were fairly nice too.
guy who made my "hammer time" task
I drove down to Normal with the Visual Arts Seminar class from the University of St. Francis. We visited the Ann Coulter show at the McLean County Arts Center first, then ate lunch at the Coffeehouse. We arrived at the TASK Party at around 1:45pm and left when it ended, around 5:00pm. I felt pretty good about a few tasks that I submitted (notably: "It's hammer time - you know what to do," "Kiss someone," "Draw your favorite state on someones face," "Tell Oliver Herring he is cute," and "Put this task back in the box." I created a few things that were fairly nice too.
guy who made my "hammer time" task
"divide the room" - the wall I built
Kristen Manzi as an astronaut
some students from my class (Jenna, James, Autumn, C'ne, and Kirk)About 10-20 minutes after I (and Mrva) built the wall someone came up and started to tear it down. I said, "No not the wall!" The person merely held up his task and said, "It's on the task." Then I shrugged and when on. This brief interaction was a little odd because I just let it go; I did spend a decent amount of time working on dividing the room. Later I came to the conclusion that it didn't effect me (personally/emotionally) to see something that I had made being destroyed because we were all there working under a group mentality. I pulled that task out of the box, other people helped me, then tasks were written to paint it, then to put barb wire on it, then to destroy it. I felt I had built it just as much as everyone else, so anything that anyone was tasked to do it was warranted. I gave my class selections from Nicolas Bourriaud's Relational Aesthetics which seems like that was a very fitting reading.
Also, I think anonymity plays pretty large into this to. It is clear that a task from the box is anonymous (unless you know the handwriting) and there by the person executing the task is cleansed of all agency to what they have to do - the perfect alibi.
Afterward I spoke to Oliver Herring and he told me that it was interesting to see new trends in TASK events. He said that large, detailed, or monumental structures (such as my wall or the castle that lived in another part of the gallery) often get destroyed. He was interested in the destruction of attempts to make something grand out of ephemeral materials such as cardboard and tape, especially when they seemed like such fleeting and fragile gestures to begin with.
Also, I think anonymity plays pretty large into this to. It is clear that a task from the box is anonymous (unless you know the handwriting) and there by the person executing the task is cleansed of all agency to what they have to do - the perfect alibi.
Afterward I spoke to Oliver Herring and he told me that it was interesting to see new trends in TASK events. He said that large, detailed, or monumental structures (such as my wall or the castle that lived in another part of the gallery) often get destroyed. He was interested in the destruction of attempts to make something grand out of ephemeral materials such as cardboard and tape, especially when they seemed like such fleeting and fragile gestures to begin with.
Pete Steadman and a few other people destroying the wall me and Mrva createdmore of my photos from TASK can be seen here.
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