Filed under: Public Art
I had a lot of fun with this project. Although the actual execution of the installation wasn’t exactly as I had planned, people’s reactions surpassed my expectations. And in the end, that’s what matters (to me, at least).
I had initially envisioned taking my long strips of paper and wrapping them around tall tree trunks so that about 10 ft. of tree trunk would be completely covered in the paper. Upon realizing that a spool of paper at Staples is about $17 and only 5 yards long, that original vision begrudgingly dissipated. [note: 2 min. after buying the Staples paper, I headed over to ITP to prepare. Noticed a massive spool of paper hanging out right next to the women's bathroom. Awesome.]
As you’ll see in the video below, I ended up just taking long strips of paper and hanging them on one side of the tree. One strip of paper said “Poet-Tree” on top and displayed a written poem, while the other piece of paper just said “Poet-Try” on the top and was left blank with sharpies attached to it in hopes that people would stop and give poetry a try.
Success!
As expected, a lot of people did a second-take as they strolled by, but kept on walking. A few stopped to read the Poet-Tree, and while the first couple people needed a little coaxing, I later bowed out of the picture entirely and people started to throw their words onto the Poet-Try tree.
A few notable moments:
The first girl to write on the strip of paper ["I believe in the victory of love" (M.M.)] was with a friend. They came by right as I was wrapping up the taping process. She spotted the markers and asked if she could write something. I said yes, of course, and she asked if there was a certain theme/form to which she had to adhere. I said it was totally open free-style and that anything goes. Suddenly she starts spilling her heart out to me…getting into how she had broken up with her non-boyfriend (long story) the night before and why is love so complicated and how do you know when to hang onto something or if it is really love, etc. etc. In the middle of her emotional stream she goes, “wow, I don’t know why I am telling you all of this!”. Ah, the power of poetry (even just the idea of it).
In general it was fun to see who actually grabbed a marker and went for it (I think only 2 men participated…hm). Some people got really excited about it, some thought it was funny. Quite a few people took photos and at least three people mentioned that they were tweeting about it. Sweet.
But my most notable moment is this: I decided to grab some lunch about halfway through. I realized that this sort of invited the possibility of someone stealing the sheets of paper, but hey, that would have just been part of the experience. Plus I was extremely hungry. Before I left, I noticed that all of the sharpies had fallen to the base of the tree. My dental floss/duct tape hanging device proved ineffective. My growling tummy clouding my judgment, I figured people would probably steal the Sharpies while I was gone, but again…it’s all part of the process.
I returned an hour later. Markers were not by the base of the tree. I sighed and mentally shrugged my shoulders. What are ya gonna do? It is NYC and I sort of expected people to take them. BUT WAIT! I walked around the tree and all three markers were hanging beautifully on the poem! Someone had taken the time to re-string and re-anchor them. Little things like that get to me and my heart seriously melted for a moment.
Anyway, check it out:
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