date> 2000

medium> work-week performance for storefront display window

description>
For "Watch" I spend office hours for several consecutive days in an enclosed storefront display window, actively observing passers-by and the life of the street. Dressed in simple clothing and equipped with only a simple chair, I watch impassively but attentively, neither communicating with nor responding to those who may attempt to interact with me. The activity requires a surprising level of vigilance on my part to avoid becoming either object or agressor. Related to this, because the activity is not recorded, the situation relies on direct experience and oral history as the means to consider and describe what transpires. The presence of the window provides both me and the passers-by the security and distance to observe each other freely, in a relationship fraught with unspoken responsibilities. The situation acknowledges but also reverses usual codes of voyeurism, rendering the situation active while confusing the roles of spectator and object. It personalizes the glancing contacts that shape social public space and intensifies spectators' awareness of their own comportment and acts of viewing.
    The piece has been realized on Ontario Street East in Montreal, on Queen Street West in Toronto, and on Whyte Avenue in Edmonton. Each area is undergoing gentrification, and as such the project has created occasions to witness the changes that are occurring in these neighbourhoods.

presentation history>
-Le mois de la performance, La Centrale (Montreal), 1-6 December 2000
-Solo Exhibition (Toronto), 5-7 February 2001
-Visualeyez performance festival, Latitude 53 (Edmonton), 6-9 August 2001