Features artasiapacific.com^117
As a memento mori, the passport works well as it’s a portable
object, one that you can hold close to your heart. In Make Your
Own Passport, which has also taken place in Detroit, Windsor
(Canada), Singapore, Yogyakarta and several locations in
Chicago between 2014 and now, the participants actually go
through the process of making it themselves. Imagine the sense
of ownership and agency coming out of this process. From these
locations, the passports then disperse into the world with
the participants, along with the memories and conversations
they had during the workshop-performance. This is what’s
powerful about holding a tangible object in your hands, because
objects embody more than what’s visible to your eyes. A gallery
setting usually severs this object-human relationship in creating
an aura of value, of the object being untouchable, which is why in
my most recent body of work I turn to public places to see how
humans and objects coexist and how material culture grows
transactions into relationships. These are the ideas in my “Trade/
Trace/Transit” project, but that we can discuss another time.
After Venice.