WPA Coup d'Espace: Fort Distraction, The End

Yesterday I deinstalled Fort Distraction. It was fitting, since yesterday was a beautiful, warm, spring-like day, and this installation was very much inspired by winter. It seems like it is almost time to come out of our caves and enjoy the sunshine. Goodbye pillow forts, hello backyard sheet tents!

Here's one last look at my Coup d'Espace.

WPA Coup d'Espace: Fort Distraction, Day 14

Tonight was the reception for Fort Distraction. The WPA's front office was full of people for over two hours, and I was talking to one or more of them almost the whole time, so my crowd photos are not very good. So, check out the website of man-about-town Vincent Gallegos in the next few days; I think he took a few good ones.











Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by. I really appreciate your comments, questions, and felicitations. Cheers!

WPA Coup d'Espace: Fort Distraction, Day 13

Today was a day for details. It was the last real working day of my Coup d'Espace project, so I spent it working on some small areas to create more moments of sharper focus in my installation. Here are a couple of them.





Thanks to Michael, visitor #5, for helping me to think about the above.

The reception for Fort Distraction is tomorrow, February 4, from 6 to 8 pm. It will be in the WPA office space at 2023 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington DC, near Dupont Circle. Pencil it in!

WPA Coup d'Espace: Fort Distraction, Day 12

When I got to the WPA office today, I realized that the red wrapping I did at the end of the hall yesterday was distracting. It was too all-over one color, without the subtle gradation in color or wrapping patterns that I had developed in other areas. So, I spent the day reworking this area and expanding it a bit. Here are the results:







My fourth visitor, independent curator and critic Danielle O'Steen, talked to me about this project for quite a while this morning and helped me see some of the problems with the work I did yesterday. Like the conversations I've had with my other visitors, this one helped me reflect on and process the work I have been doing over the past 2.5 weeks. Here are some of my notes from our talk:

-When there are several like things (like office chairs or cardboard accordion benches), viewers automatically want to compare them, noticing how they have been dealt with similarly or differently.
-The scale of this work allows for both passages and focal points. What is the role of a focal point in a work like this?
-The moments of detail are more about where the sheets meet the office furniture rather than being intricate manipulations that I have created.
-The process of creating this work has been more painterly than my previous installations. That is, because of the duration of my work on the piece, I have come back to it over the course of many days as I would a painting, gradually changing, building on, or canceling out things that were done previously in order to move the work forward.

WPA Coup d'Espace: Fort Distraction, Day 11

More red, down the hall. I'm almost to the trash can, and I can feel things drawing to a conclusion.

WPA Coup d'Espace: Fort Distraction, Day 10

Today's work took me farther down the long wall, almost to the end of the front office area and moving from purple ever so slightly into maroon.





I decided to include the box of auction gala invitations in my installation since that is currently the main focus for the people who work at the WPA.





Sorry for the bad iPhone photos. Regular camera will return tomorrow.

WPA Coup d'Espace: Fort Distraction, Day 9

My slow march down the office walkway continues, this time in purple.







I spent a lot of the day moving furniture around and staring into space. I think the work I did today may be more of a sketch to build on next week rather than work that is fixed in place. Time will tell.

Visitor #3 came by today -- thanks, Leigh!

WPA Coup d'Espace: Fort Distraction, Day 8

Today was definitely not a snow day for my project. I thought and worked hard today and feel like i made a big leap in terms of color and size.

WPA Coup d'Espace: Fort Distraction, Day 7

Before today's Snoprise set in, I got back to work on Fort Distraction. I am finishing up the entryway area and moving into the office proper, as well as adding color.









Unfortunately, a dark and cold house greeted me and Mr. MJ when we returned home in the afternoon. We sort of camped out in here with candles and lots of layers for five hours or so til electricity was restored.



Today's snow and the events surrounding it (amazing traffic jams, early dismissals, Metrobus stoppage, socially networked snowball fights, etc.) are to me the perfect pairing for my Coup d'Espace project. I was thinking back to the wonder of last year's snowstorms, how they were this amazing break from the post-holiday doldrums that can set in during the hard part of winter. I wanted to conjure up the longing for such an event that I think a lot of DC residents have felt this year every time there is a hint of the white stuff. Here's hoping though that this is just a taste....I don't think we really want to spend a month digging out again.

WPA Coup d'Espace: Fort Distraction, Day 6

On the sixth day I rested, since some repair work was going on to a key wall in the space.

WPA Coup d'Espace: Fort Distraction, Day 5

Today was a short work day, since some repairs were happening to the office space during the day. So, I continued wrapping the cardboard benches that I had been working with on Friday.







I *think* I'm almost ready to begin with some color.

WPA Coup d'Espace: Fort Distraction, Day 4

Today was about continuing to work on the bay window at the front of the office and finding ways to grow vertically.

First, here's a better photo of the table wrapping I did yesterday (without the strong shadows):

This morning I started with some little stacks in the window sills. These stacks are more intricate and precise (at least, in the way they are made, if not in appearance) than the other wraps and stacks I have made so far.

I began to use the pins holding up the holiday lights to get the sheets up the wall. I'm trying to echo the swooping shape from the cardboard bench/box stack wrap on the other side of the bay window.

And so, the piles and bags grow smaller!

That's it for the first week of Fort Distraction. I'll be back Monday with some new work.

WPA Coup d'Espace: Fort Distraction, Day 3

Today was slow. I got caught up in some details. However, I think they are details worth keeping. We'll see what I think about them tomorrow.

The WPA has these amazing corrugated cardboard, modular benches that they can deploy in different configurations around the office as needed. I am using them as a kind of scaffolding for my work. The allow some beautiful, poetic moments to happen.

I also built upon my fortification of the reception desk, this time adding in some black and gray sheets.

Lisa Rosenstein was my second visitor. She talked to me about my work for quite a while and helped me process some of it. Namely, I realized how hard I am thinking the whole time I am working. (That's probably why I feel wiped out after only 4 hours.) Most of the time when I have a show and make an installation, I have a plan that I have tried out ahead of time, so I just work to get the plan realized. This time, I am making the plan up as I go along. It's hard work, but kind of fun too. I can feel my brain stretching.

WPA Coup d'Espace: Fort Distraction, Day 2

On day 2, I turned my attention to the entryway of the WPA offices. The reception desk and big stack of exhibition catalog boxes seemed like natural places to start.







These two small interventions in the space seem a bit more comfortable and familiar to me than the work I did yesterday. They more closely resemble works I've made in the past. I need to figure out a way to get this dense-feeling accumulation, while at the same time deploying the sheets over a large area. For now, I think I'll sleep on it.

WPA Coup d'Espace: Fort Distraction, Day 1

Today I began my Coup d'Espace project at the Washington Project for the Arts. Over the next three weeks, I will be building a large bed sheet installation in the organization's office space in the Dupont Circle neighborhood. Here's what I accomplished:

A car full of sheets (the trunk was totally full as well).

My bags of sheets taking over the space.

Me at work (thanks to Kendall Nordin, my first visitor, for taking the photo). I decided to wear a kind of uniform each day so that I contrast with my materials and the other people working in the space (this is an office, after all). All black seemed like an obvious choice for this: a little bit art-world cliche, a little bit behind the scenes stage hand.

Today's work complete.

I think the work I do during the first couple of days of my Coup will be like a sketch for what is to come. I am trying out my materials in the space, learning what I can attach them to and how to best deploy the elements already in the space (benches, boxes, shelves, other misc. furniture).