I want more (2012)

Interactive site-specific performance & workshop and
First edition performance multiple (hand paddle)

Artist Soup Kitchen at Raging Spoon Café
Curated by Catherine Clark, Jess Dobkin, & Stephanie Springgay
Toronto, Ontario

Fabrication assistance:
Sandra Liu

Photos by Julie Smitka

Thank you:
Rick Saulnier, Kate Barry, Alison Creba, Kathleen Edwards, Leanne Gillard, Arden Hagedom, Adam Herst, Johanna Householder, Sandra Liu, David Reyes, Sean Smith, Connie Tsang, and all participants!

I want more! was an interactive performative exercise that asked the audience to consider the action of asking for more. Inspired by the initial curatorial prompt of offering a soup kitchen for artists, I chose to explore the idea of class structure and the power dynamic of desire, and asking for more, and whether the want is social, economic or abstract.

I chose to stage a lunch where each person’s meal was scaled down to a miniature version of a balanced lunch. Artist-visitors were required to raise their ‘hand’ (an edition of 100 wooden cut-out hands with the text ‘I want more’ branded on each), then amplify their voices by speaking through a megaphone to ask for more food in order to get a fair serving. Using the wooden hand as a starting point, attendees were encouraged to engage with each other and consider what s/he as an artist might want more of; perhaps more inspiration, support, dialogue or attention. Or maybe some more vegetarian chilli, crudité and toast for lunch!

What I find most curious about this project is an individual’s process of recognizing when s/he desires, what it is s/he wants more of, and subsequently how and why s/he eventually chooses to make her/his desire known in demanding satisfaction.