April 3, 2015 I attended an interactive art performance at The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design in downtown Asheville. My good friend Shanna invited me, so I excitedly attended, along with my friend Frank. I had absolutely no idea what this was about. Well, other than the text from Shanna the night before saying that I "might get felt up in public." Horrifying. This artwork is titled 'Back to the Drawing Board-Performance Crafting, hand in hand.' I read about the event online and it sounded fun.
The performance crafting consisted of having the artist, Tanya Aguiñiga put a wool sleeve on each attendee's arm. Next the arm was wrapped in saran wrap and filled with soapy water. From there, we all formed a chain so that our 'free' hand was massaging the person's wrapped hand next to us. We were urged to stand next to someone that we had never met before. This was such an unusual experience. I was massaging the squishy, wooly, soapy hand of the girl to my right while having my squishy, wooly, soapy left hand massaged by a woman to my left. Slowly, over a time of about 20 minutes, the wool began to become felted, and less and less soapy wetness squished around. As this was going on, more people were coming into the gallery and joining in. The artist walked around and checked on everyone. We smiled and laughed at our friend's across the room. There was soapy water all over the floor.
The performance crafting consisted of having the artist, Tanya Aguiñiga put a wool sleeve on each attendee's arm. Next the arm was wrapped in saran wrap and filled with soapy water. From there, we all formed a chain so that our 'free' hand was massaging the person's wrapped hand next to us. We were urged to stand next to someone that we had never met before. This was such an unusual experience. I was massaging the squishy, wooly, soapy hand of the girl to my right while having my squishy, wooly, soapy left hand massaged by a woman to my left. Slowly, over a time of about 20 minutes, the wool began to become felted, and less and less soapy wetness squished around. As this was going on, more people were coming into the gallery and joining in. The artist walked around and checked on everyone. We smiled and laughed at our friend's across the room. There was soapy water all over the floor.
As the hands began to form into a tight glove around the hands, the saran wrap was removed and we continued to massage. Once the piece was felted to the desired shape, we pulled the felted glove off to dry by the others. I haven't been back to the CCCD yet but I need to soon because the artwork is all currently being displayed for all to see.
This was fun. and bizarre. and beautiful. This artwork by Tanya is about community, conversation, experimentation, and innovation. You can learn more about the artist here.
This was fun. and bizarre. and beautiful. This artwork by Tanya is about community, conversation, experimentation, and innovation. You can learn more about the artist here.
You can always watch this super awesome video about the artist and the event at CCCD.
^Also slightly obsessed with this collaborative piece done by the artist!...
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