HANGERS 101 & A LITANY OF HASHTAGS
Hangers 101 & a Litany of Hashtags. A commentary on the divisive socio-political climate engulfed the nation and caused worldwide concern with the election and four years of Donald Trump’s presidency.
This work bridges the realms of audience participation, performance, and social activism through multimedia – culminating in a sensory array of aesthetic and auditory experiences. Prompted by the 2016 presidential election results – spanning four years from 1/20/2017 – 1/20/2021 – I gathered thousands of written and verbal responses to my question, “How do you feel about what’s happening around us and in the world?” Interactions between the artist and audience establish a call-and-response dialogue. Creating an active dialogue on the sociopolitical climate. Participants posed, held hangers, and shared opinions. I added a thread of yarn, symbolizing their responses, which were turned into hashtags – i.e., #concernedaboutclimatechange #womensrighttochoose #wishforpeace. These reflect the emotional temperature of the times and aim to share words of hope for positive changes, peace, and collective understanding. “We all need it, don’t we?”
These participant commentaries’ hashtags became the basis for performances, including several monologues, sculptural works, and installations. In a full-length exhibition at Plaxall Gallery, I presented participatory performances, installation, social media, soundtrack, live performances, and video. Performances and Performance artifacts have been presented from my studio to the streets of New York City, Geneva, and Bergen; Glasshouse ArtLifeLab and New York Studio School, Local Project and Plaxall Gallery in New York; the Bergen Art Festival in Norway, Blue Spirit in Costa Rica and White Box NYC.
The project’s soundtrack, created in collaboration with pianist Nicole Brancato and Joris Pierre Katz can be heard on Bandcamp and YouTube. You can view an excerpt of the video made as a conclusion of this project on YouTube and Vimeo; see the performance presented at Local Project on Vimeo. Please visit @mcayer27 to see the entire progression of this project featured on Instagram.
Creating an active dialogue on the sociopolitical climate. Participants posed, holding hangers and sharing opinions. I added a thread of yarn, symbolizing their responses, which were turned into hashtags – i.e., #concernedaboutclimatechange #womensrighttochoose #wishforpeace. The full scope of the project’s images and hashtags can be seen on Instagram @mcayer27.
a Litany of Hashtags – the ensuing performance – comprised monologues created from participants’ commentaries and the transformation of the yarned hangers. Performance artifacts become sculptural work and installation. The culmination of the work is exhibited through large-scale installation, sculpture, performance, soundtrack, and video.
