we live here now

THE MISSION STATEMENT:

The vitality of a city’s downtown area is essential to the cultural, economic and social growth of the greater community. As new transplants to Spartanburg, we are unsettled by downtown’s empty storefronts– evidence of how some local businesses have struggled to bring community members out of the suburbs and into the center of town.

We believe that art has not only the potential, but the responsibility to address these issues in innovative ways – through the stimulation of creative thinking, the promotion of progressive solutions, and the reactivation of abandoned and neglected spaces.

Rachel Harkai and Arielle Angel will be living in the storefront windows of 100 East Main for five days and four nights. For these five days our activities will be determined by the capabilities of this space. We will be sleeping here. We will be working here. We will not be able to cook any food here, as there is no kitchen. As there is no shower, any semblance of bathing will be limited to creative use of the bathroom sink on this building’s first floor.

We are restricting our movement to downtown – the area of Main Street between Spring Street and Converse Street. Our plan is to treat Spartanburg’s city center as a true urban area by utilizing what resources are presently available to us while also exploring the ways in which this downtown space is deficient.

With events like Music on Main, Jazz on the Square, the creation of Hub-Bub, and the opening of the Chapman Cultural Center, Spartanburg is already making efforts to rejuvenate downtown through various forms of art. We wish to contribute to these efforts by highlighting the presence of a young, creatively-minded population living in and around downtown.

We plan to respond to our immediate environment through performance, installation, poetry, and visual art – whichever forms of creative reaction spontaneously arise. Implicit in this experience is our investigation of how art-making can be a simultaneously isolating and integrating activity, a tension explored through presumed interactions with and withdrawals from our viewers.

By inserting ourselves into these previously-abandoned storefront windows, we hope to remind the community that downtown Spartanburg was once a center of residential life, cultural activity and social interaction. We believe that through progressive community activism and sustained effort, our downtown area can achieve this status once again.

THE RULES:

We will reside in the storefront windows of 100 East Main Street from 8 A.M. on Wednesday, October 24^th until 8 P.M. on Sunday, October 28^th.

All daily activities will be conducted in these three windows with the exception of three one-hour meal-breaks each day. (Bathroom breaks will be taken as needed.)

During these breaks, we are restricted to the area of Main Street between Spring Street and Converse Street.

Any time we are absent from the storefront, our whereabouts will be posted in the window. Come find us.

We are allowed to accept invited visitors into our living space at any time.

We are allowed out onto the designated stoop area for fresh air.

Anyone is allowed to leave notes/pictures/other ephemera in the drop-box at any time. We will check the drop-box periodically.

We are only permitted to draw our curtains while we sleep, if desired.

THE SCHEDULE:

Wednesday

12:30-2 PM: “Exquisite Corpse”

An “Exquisite Corpse” is a method of collaboration in which the work is passed among participants. Each participant is expected to elaborate on the previous addition. Operating under this principle, the two of us will be creating a series of exquisite corpses. We will not be using any form of verbal or non-verbal communication other than a simple signal to indicate when we are ready to pass the work on. Finished works will be placed outside for view.

7:30-9 PM: “One of These Things is Not Like The Other Ones”

We’re making diagrams of how things fit together. Stop by and check on our progress. Tap on the glass if you’ve got an idea.

Thursday

12:30-2 PM: “In The Box”

Hold something/tape something in the picture frames we’ve hung on the window (it could be your face, or something in your pocket, whatever). We will create something based on your framed image.

7:30-9 PM: “Sound Booth”

Listen. Talk into the mic.

Friday

12:30-2 PM: “?”

7:30-9 PM: “Tea Party”

Have some tea, come chat with us, or take a look at our studio space.

Saturday

12:30-2 PM: “Charades”

Bring your kids to play a round of Charades with us, or even if you can’t stick around, rotate in for a bit. If you guess right, you get to go in the window and act out your own concept.

9 PM -?: “Dance Party!”

Sunday

12:30-2 PM: “Move Out”

We are moving out. We’ll be sorting through the things we have made and accumulated during our stay, and giving them all to you. Look for presents and feel free to take one.