WE'LL BE SEEING YOU
Artist Residency and Solo Exhibition
Project Gallery
Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver
June 3 - September 7, 2008
WWW.JACKBALAS.COM
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WE'LL BE SEEING YOU Artist Residency and Solo Exhibition
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TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT FOR A SITTING, PLEASE CONTACT JACK BALAS at: JackBalas@aol.com. Sittings are generally Thursday and Saturday afternoons 12-6 in 45-minute blocks during the month of June, with additional time on Fridays as needed.
PHOTO PORTRAIT QUESTIONNAIRE
Dear prospective sitter,
Before we meet at the MCA-Denver for the portrait session, I would like you to consider the following questions. In asking them, my goal is to be able to generate portraits that go beyond the usual documentary image that shows simply what you look like; rather, I would like them to incorporate some idea(s) that touch on who you "really" are, or who you imagine yourself to be. Something physical? Something psychological? It's really open-ended; I consider your answers here to be a point of departure. Having said this, I do want to set a couple of parameters: the photos, for practical purposes, will be done against a blank wall in the museum's Project Gallery itself, and will include enough of all or some part of your body/face so as to allow viewers to say "Oh, that's so-and-so." Beyond that, our goal is to be creative.
The answers to the following questions can manifest themselves in the photos in one or more of three ways: 1) as language, typically written on a sign somewhere in the image or else on the wall behind you, or else in some existing form you bring to the museum with you. 2) as an image, which can be physically brought to the museum with you in the form of photographs or drawings, or else draw on a sign or else the wall behind you in the image. 3) as an object small and portable enough for you to bring with you to the museum and which can be photographed with you.
Our session should take somewhere from 30-60 minutes. Depending on the logistics of printing out some of the results, we might be able to select and put one up on the museum wall for the duration of the exhibition, or else this will happen somewhere down the road and I will make the selection. In either case, you will be given the opportunity to write on the print itself (and thus allow the viewing public to read as well) your thoughts either about the image itself or about seeing the image in the context of the museum exhibition, thus addressing the ideas that portraits can be accurate or not, depending on who's doing the looking; or else that portraits are only incomplete approximations of complex identities.
PLEASE BRING THIS QUESTIONNAIRE OR THE ANSWERS TO ITS QUESTIONS WITH YOU TO THE MUSEUM WHEN YOU COME FOR THE SITTING.
PLEASE NOTE: YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THE PROJECT ASSIGNS COPYRIGHT OWNERSHIP TO THE ARTIST, JACK BALAS, AND ACKNOWLEDGES HIS RIGHT TO PUBLISH AND/OR DISTRIBUTE ANY IMAGES AS HE SEES FIT.
QUESTIONS:
NAME: _____________________ CONTACT phone and Email:___________________________
I WAS SENT BY:________________________________ or: I AM SELF-REFERRED________
1. Who do you see when you look in the mirror? How do you think other people see you?
2. What do you do/ how do you spend your time?
3. How do you like to spend your free time?
4. What's your philosophy of life, if you have one?
5. What would people be surprised to find out about you?
6. What are five words or phrases or ideas that are important to you?
7. In addition to answering some or all of the above questions, please bring in some IMAGES that are important to you in the form of photographs, drawings, or ideas that can be drawn on the wall. This is really open-ended.
8. Also, please bring with you some portable OBJECT(S) of personal significance.
9. Any other ideas? Let me know and we'll work on it. Again, these questions are just to get the ball rolling.
IMPORTANT: The next step in the project is for you to recommend the next sitter -- anyone you want and who can make it down here to the musuem for a sitting. Consider sending someone who would never expect to see a portrait of him or herself in an art museum, let alone even visit one.
WHO IS THAT PERSON? _________________________________
CONTACT PHONE and E-MAIL____________________________
Thanks, and we'll be seeing you.
TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT FOR A SITTING, PLEASE CONTACT JACK BALAS at: JackBalas@aol.com. Sittings are generally Thursday and Saturday afternoons 12-6 in 45-minute blocks during the month of June, with additional time on Fridays as needed.