provisions for buoyancy

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Performance Action with Body Board, East Potomac Park, Washington, DC

On Monday, July 31 , I walked around East Potomac Park in Washington, DC carrying a body board I made out of salvaged materials. There had been heavy rains in the region on Friday and Saturday accompanied by flash flood warnings. Though I'm not sure there had been any incidents of flash flooding over the weekend. Nonetheless, I was surprised to encounter this degree of flooding while walking along the paved footpath extending around the perimeter of East Potomac Park. At this location, the water was over my knees, midway up my thighs and was definitely going to get deeper. If the water was cleaner I would have swam along the footpath... Performance Documentation by Susanna Lee @soozlee

Performance Action with Life Ring at Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C.

On Friday, July 14, I walked around Jefferson Memorial for three hours carrying a life ring. My original intention for the performance actions in my Provisions for Buoyancy series, is to walk in parts of Washington, D.C. that would be flooded if the sea level were to rise by 5-6 feet, while carrying a provision for buoyancy that I made out of refuse materials . Unfortunately, if the sea level were to rise by that amount, this historic site would be flooded. You can see, as I did, by consulting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) online Sea Level Rise Viewer. Carrying a life ring around Jefferson Memorial signified more than that alone for me however. Given Jefferson was the primary author of The Declaration of Independence , and given, even today, our freedom is at risk... With this in mind, it felt all the more meaningful to be walking around this historic site carrying a life ring. Much thanks to Susanna Lee from VisArts for accompanyi

New Genres Workshop

Performance Action with Life Ring at Jefferson Memorial , Washington, D.C., Katie Kehoe I'm giving a New Genres workshop @VisArts this Saturday, July 22 from 10:30-4:30pm At times, one feels confined in their art practice, or unable to get beyond a certain point in order to create work that is new and interesting to them. It’s at these points, that there is in fact a wonderful potential for expanding our practice. In this workshop, I will challenge you to explore new genres by exploring the potential already present in your work and translating it in a different medium - we will celebrate the mistakes we make and use them as starting points to create new work in another medium you’re interested to explore. Artists working in any medium are invited to participate. Please bring an example of your work that fell short of what you hoped it would be or that you considered to be unsuccessful but still see something in it that interests you. There will be a one-hour break

The Shack Raft is Underway

5 platforms 3' x 4.5' - built this size to fit in my car. All from salvaged wood, cut, sanded with one coat of finishing wax (may add another). It's wonderful what a little TLC can do. Laid out together before additional sanding with finer grain sandpaper: 9' x 9' - this will be the base of the shack raft I'm constructing. I now need to create pontoons for the base, an under structure to secure them in place as well contribute to holding the platform sections together, and build a shelter onto the base platform. I had already salvaged a bunch of boards - as posted earlier on the blog - but didn't have enough to complete five sections, so returned to the dumpsters.

Performance as Social Practice Workshop

One Year and Twenty Four Days of Fishing (2010-11), Katie Kehoe , a performance action for which I carried a fishing rod and wore rubber boots everywhere for over a year On Thursday, June 22 from 7-10pm I'm giving a Performance as Social Practice Workshop @VisArts! After a brief introduction on performance art, we’ll explore in more detail how performance art translates into a social practice – focusing specifically on the relational stream of performance art. We’ll discuss how the following considerations help to shape the social experience and influence the degree to which participants are invested in a piece: defining your audience, forms of participation, awareness of site, duration, presence and safety. We’ll also discuss the importance of documentation and consider different methods for documenting this art form. Please wear comfortable clothes. Follow this link to sign up: https://www.visartscenter.org/more/event/performance-as-social-practice-workshop/