Today/Tomorrow, December 2010
This morning, I awoke. Tonight, I will sleep and if conditions allow, I will do both again tomorrow. I eat, I laugh, I love. I scream, struggle and fail. But above all else, I live. I am living as art, learning as I go, and leading by example.
As I further my investigations in performative and experiential art, the lines between life and art continue to dissolve. As I write this, I stare out of the window and watch millions of snowflakes gather on rooftops and sidewalks, blanketing the city in white. I am making a performance titled "Contemplating my Mortality while Watching the Snow Fall from my Living Room Window." I use my computer's built-in camera to document the piece. The duration of the piece is approximately 3 minutes.
My work posits itself comfortably between the time my eyes open and the time they close, marking the beginning and ending of my day. One might ask, "So if we're all just waking up and going to sleep, then isn't everyone an artist?" To which I would reply, "Yes." There are approximately 6.8 billion artists living in the world, all influencing and responding to one another, most of whom do not even realize that they are artists.
I am not interested in neither glorifying or rejecting past modes of art making, viewing or criticism. My aim is to continue attempting to understand, challenge, construct and reconfigure my world with all of its beauty and flaws. Humans have a very important story to tell, both to each other and about each other. The only way to tell this story is to go out into the world and coauthor it. It is a story of triumph and defeat, love and love lost. It is a lesson in both acceptance and growth. I may describe it as being Black, Queer or Millennial, but understand that these are just terms I employ to communicate larger ideas about struggle, love and coming of age. Let us not distract ourselves with our different names for the same thing. What is important is the fact that we are living and dying with the hopes that someday, our lives will not be an insignificant combination of breaths taken and spaces occupied, but that they will actually mean something. We attempt to find this meaning via shared experiences and it is through these--through our ability to recognize ourselves in others--that we acquire enough momentum and endurance necessary to blaze trails.
This morning, I awoke. Tonight I will sleep and if conditions allow, tomorrow I will have another opportunity to provide platforms for shared experiences. One more chance to live, learn and lead.