Œuvre d'art public
Templates for Walking Theatre
Artwork creator(s):
Jacob, Luis
Text author(s):
Jacob, Luis
Installation year:
2000 Description:
Similar both to public signage and graffiti, Templates for Walking Theatre link language to municipal authority and to our personal capacities as citizens for creating new meaning. These graphic and linguistic borders mark differentiation upon the city landscape, and engage our partially free acts of negotiating through it. The Templates arise from an activist impulse: they elicit not only our contemplative faculties, but also new possibilities for our active, bodily behaviour in the streets.
Text of the artwork:
[Probing Into the Distance Exhibition]
ACROSS THIS LINE THE GRASS IS GREENER / ACROSS THIS LINE FROM BACKYARD TO BACKYARD ACROSS THIS LINE TO JOYFULLY LOITER, SOLICIT AND DISTRIBUTE / ACROSS THIS LINE TO DO AND DON’T, HAVE AND HAVE NOT
[Tomorrow’s News Exhibition]
CROSSING THIS LINE IS THE WAY YOU SEE YOURSELF / CROSSING THIS LINE IS WHAT YOU DON’T BELIEVE
[New Season Exhibition]
CROSSING THIS LINE IS ALL EXPENSES PAID / CROSSING THIS LINE IS ALL YOU CAN EAT CROSSING THIS LINE THEY SAY THERE IS NO HOPE / CROSSING THIS LINE WITH ALL THE RADICALS, ANARCHISTS AND SEX ADDICTS ACROSS THIS LINE IS CONTROL OF MARKETS, OIL SUPPLY AND “DEMOCRACY" / ACROSS THIS LINE IS VALUES, ASPIRATIONS, ADULT SOCIALIZATION AND AGING
[Voices in Transit Exhibition]
CROSSING THIS LINE IS ONE WAY TO GET THERE / CROSSING THIS LINE WITH NO WAY BACK ACROSS THIS LINE FROM SOMEWHERE SPECIAL / ACROSS THIS LINE TO SOME PLACE BETTER
[DREAM Exhibition]
ACROSS THIS LINE IN ALL DIRECTIONS / ACROSS THIS LINE TO THE LAST STEP
[The Way Up and The Way Down Are One and the Same Exhibition]
CROSSING THE LINE IS THE END OF THE WORLD / CROSSING THIS LINE IS THE START OF A DIFFERENT WAY OF LIFE
[Tomorrow’s News]
(English)
ACROSS THIS LINE IS WHAT YOU WANTED / ACROSS THIS LINE IS WHAT YOU NEVER THOUGHT OF
(Finnish)
Viivan tuolla puolen on se mitä halusit / Viivan tuolla puolen on se mitä et koskaan ajatellut
(English)
CROSSING THIS LINE IS THE WAY YOU SEE YOURSELF / CROSSING THIS LINE IS WHAT YOU DON'T BELIEVE
(Finnish)
Viivan tuolla puolen on se millaisena itsesi näet / Viivan tuolla puolen on se mitä et usko
Text theme:
Negotiating space, execution of a significant shift in space
Artwork theme:
Communication, social relationships and social engagement in public places.
History:
Event: Probing Into the Distance, Contemporary Art Forum Kitchener and Area, Kitchener, ON.
Date: September 20-28, 2003
History: Text in English and Finnish.
Event: Tomorrow's News, co-hosted by Gallery 101, Ottawa, ON (Canada) and Gallery Hippolyte, Helsinki (Finland). (Commissioner: Paula Toppila).
Date: April 24-May 31, 2003, Ottawa, ON (Canada) from May 23-June 19, 2003, Helsinki (Finland).
Event: New Season, Museum of Modern Art, Detroit (Commissioner: Odie Rynell Cash)
Date: September 2002; Text in English, Xhosa and Afrikaans.
Event: Voices in Transit, Cape Town Central Station, at theCape Town Festival, South Africa (Commissioner of the Visual Arts: Jason St-Laurent)
Date: March 2002
Event: DREAM, Spin Gallery, Toronto, ON. (Commissioner: Juno Youn)
Date: June 17-July 4, 2000
Event: The Way Up and Down the Way Are One and the Same, 5 Grafton Avenue, Toronto, ON
Date: May 2000
Note(s):
In Templates for Walking Theatre, lines of text were applied directly on the floor or ground of various sites -- an apartment in Toronto, a train station in Cape Town, an art gallery in Detroit, the public sidewalk in Kitchener -- to be stepped upon and traversed as people make their various ways in the world. One message is legible when one approaches from one direction; and another message is legible when approaching from another direction.
Artist's biography:
Luis Jacob Document(s):
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