Below is a description of the 12-hour narrative performance I’m doing on Wednesday as part of the “12/12/12 Show.”
We’ve been getting a lot of press for this excitingly odd, once-in-a-lifetime show featuring 12 12-hour performances by 12 artists/artist collaboratives on December 12, 2012. The show runs continuously from 12 noon to 12 midnight at RedLine (1422 N. 4th Street, Milwaukee, just north of downtown … Bradley Center, MATC, etc.). More info at the Tumblr page: http://www.12-12-twelve.tumblr.com/ or on the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/305080002926609/. I hope to see you there.
DEBIT/CREDIT
Why?
I was raised by a bookkeeper to believe that how we make and spend our money signifies our values on many different levels. I fell asleep to the sound of the adding machine, a clicky-clacky lullaby.
I was once married to the son of a CPA. After the CPA’s death, I learned that he had kept compulsive lists of daily expenditures. I realized that they were a sort of diary. A messy life story could be released from between the tidy lines of numbers.
I religiously track my income and expenses in my Quicken electronic register. A messy life story is in there, too, to be teased out from among the orderly electrons. Ask me about it.
In our culture (which is all about money) we don’t talk about money. This invitation to confession is a conscious act of cultural transgression.
What?
The evolving audience of this 12-hour performance is the driver of this narrative project. Your jobs:
Visit the Museum of Representative Purchases. Read the catalogue. Ask me questions about the collection.
Select a golden egg from the basket. Open it. Ask me questions about what’s inside, if you want to. When you are done, put the egg back.
Learn from my mother, Margo the Bookkeeper. Ask me questions about what it was like being raised by her.
Stay and listen to me as I look through my bank register and credit card statements. Interrupt. Provoke. Ask uncomfortable questions.
Use the penny jars to “vote” on whether the story I have told you as a result is “True,” “Half True,” or “Untrue.” If you’ve provoked more than one story (or heard more than one story thanks to the questions of another visitor), you may vote once for each story that you heard.