Art Buff

Back in the fall I created a prototype for this guerilla art project, but was soon confronted by winter weather and had to wait until the snowy and rainy months of the year were over. Now it’s finally time to launch it full-scale.

The piece itself was first inspired by Quaker meeting rooms and thoughts I’d had about everyday spirituality. I’ve been interested in the way that Quakers can hold their meetings in any sort of space. The rooms don’t have to be built as sanctuaries, but are made sacred simply by the fact that Friends engage them in a sacred way. Quakers speak of their meetings having a palpable, silent power. The fact that that all the energy occurs in an arbitrarily designated space was something I really wanted to explore through art.

I’ve also been thinking about everyday people. Do they think about the sacred or supernatural outside of their religious institutions? If they’re atheists do they think about such things at all? 

These thoughts lead me to want to create a way to confront people with the sacred or supernatural in an out of context environment. At the same time I wanted to create an arbitrary space that could be made sacred through the power of its participant. If Quakers can make converted garages sacred, why not sidewalks? I plan on putting most of these spaces in slightly out of the way locations, where the privacy afforded to the person might inspire them to actually use the space in a spiritual way. For my first space, I placed it near a shady tree at the edge of a park.

Here’s to many more.