GREAT TASTING GOODNESS!
A series of sculptures, performances, and photographs examining U.S. suburban housing, and culture.
GREAT TASTING GOODNESS! (houses)
Cardboard
2006-11
Identical suburban homes made from colorful consumer product packaging; this neighborhood covered in advertisements emphasizes the role of brands in our lives. When small children encounter this project they immediately respond by identifying the brands they recognize (often with only a portion of a logo showing). I use packaging from products that are emblematic of American suburbia: Mr. Clean, Cheerios, Lean Cuisine, TUMS, Tampax, etc. I have installed these houses as a sprawling suburb at conferences, coffee shops, galleries, a storefront window, a museum, and a hotel room.
Floating Island Estates
Cardboard, astro-turf, puffy plastic clouds
2012
Standing Culdesac: A Monument to Sprawl
Cardboard
38x36x76”
2008
Suburban Waterwalk
Performance
2009
Wearing a yellow polo shirt, kaki pants, and sunglasses I carried approximately 4 gallons of water barefoot for 2.4 miles (from the Spokane River to the Meadowood suburban development) in order to water my freshly cut lawn.
Suburban Waterwalk on display at Northwest Museum of Art & Culture, 2009
Practice Swing
Performance
2012
This performance took place inside my GREAT TASTING GOODNESS art installation, inside a former Woolworth's department store display window. For numerous hours I practiced my golf swing - standing on astro turf - dressed as an average suburban male - wearing cheap sun glasses, a yellow & blue striped polo shirt, khaki pants, a brown belt, a shiny watch, brown socks, and brown loafers - while holding a black whip.
Cul De Sac Experiment
Performance
2008
A pseudo science experiment that reveals the number of times a business man driving a yellow HUMMER can circle a cul de sac in the time it takes another business man of good health to walk the same cul de sac once.
Spokane's Outer Gateways
Digital Photography Printed on Cardboard
2009
A photographic documentary of the entrances to over 50 gated communities surrounding Spokane, WA. Each gateway represents an entire "community" sometime hundreds of homes. These landscaped gateways often include fountains, ponds, and rock gardens. The names of these gated communities are meant to evoke nostalgia, nature, and idealic-rural-white-50's americana. Ironically, these names frequently reference things that were destroyed in the creation of the neighborhood: "Arrowhead Point" where genocide and land theft was committed against the Spokane Natives, "Eagle Ridge" where eagles were displaced, and "Whisperwood" where the woods were cut down and replaced with small more manageable trees.