Description of work: The piece from AP 2009 illustrated seven unrelated odd “happenings” from Grand Rapids history. It began as a personal pieces; as Artprize 2009 unfolded, visitors at the Tanglefoot Building responded to the piece in ways not anticipated. For many visitors, images from the piece (along with corresponding text) sparked their own extremely personal memories, which grew into conversations and discussions with friends. It was no longer my piece; each viewer was assimilating parts of it for themselves, to think about, talk about and eventually file away as “snapshots” now associated with their own memories. The curator of collections at GVSU purchased the piece for the Allendale campus, interested in its relevance to both history and art. Long after Artprize was finished, I was contacted by a woman whose family is linked to one of the stories depicted in the piece. The conversations generated by last year's piece has inspired me to explore the theme of GR stories on a larger scale. |