The Eva Hesse: Project was an integrative social and art project that I
conducted in spring of 2013.
Inspiration: studies of contemporary performance art desires to combine social media and art want to education the public of my personal art theory challenge my peers to accept an invitation to participate, and measure results Eva Hesse
Eva Hesse was a Jewish American artist. Her work and imminent presence paved the way for womens acceptance and emergence into the public world of art. I admire her work. However, this project was not about Eva. Instead I used my studies of her as a symbolic skeleton.
The Experiment Seven days before the experiment began, I began promoting the event on Facebook. Each day I would reveal a small bit of information, hoping to draw curiosity and generate conversation about the project. For three days I wrote Who is Eva Hesse? across my forehead, and wore the words from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed. I knew that Eva Hesse was an uncommon name, and hoped that it would generate curiosity. I had scheduled times where I would stand in the quad on LSUs campus where I hoped to cross the most foot traffic. I considered this experiment a live art performance. Rule #1: Do not approach anyone, allow participants curiosity to draw them to curator. Rule #2: Invite participant to be a part of the art performance. Rule #3: Upon acceptance, provide participant with a newborn thread instruct participant of the newborns purpose. Upon denial, wish non-participant a good day. Rule #4: Invite participant to return thread Rule #5: Invite participant to follow the experiment on Facebook in order to stay tuned in for date of reveal Rule #6: Only if asked, explain the purpose of project.
Personal Art Theory I believe we make art in everything we do making our bed, washing our face, walking the dog, going to school, arguing with our parents we are a part of an incredible masterpiece. Everyone is an artist. I hoped that participation in this project would enable the public to explore this point of view.
Challenge Upon accepting the invitation to participate in the art performance, I handed the patron a burlap thread. Burlap was common medium used by Eva Hesse. Each thread was 34 inches long, Eva Hess lived to be 34 years old. The participant could do whatever the wanted with the thread, providing them an avenue to experiment with their creativity. Second, I asked them post on either Twitter or Instagram displaying the use of their thread causing the artist display their work before the public. This was also a way to track the threads, view the threads journey. Finally, I asked the participant to return the thread (I posted my times in the quad on the Eve Hesse: Project Facebook page).
Reveal On Friday May 3 rd , 2013 I revealed a woven masterpiece of all the returned threads that represented the art in our life.
Results Over 300 newborn threads were given away. Most participants saw no form of promotion. Some saw my flyers around campus that I posted the day before the experiment. And few first heard of the project from the Facebook page. Nearly 100 journeyed threads were returned. I experimented with paid promotions on Facebook, budgeting myself $5 a day during the 3 day performance. Interestingly enough, I was able to target my audience so narrowly that my posts reached a fellow student of Eva Hesse.