Go Elsewhere!

I’ve just started a month-long residency at Elsewhere museum in Greensboro, North Carolina. I arrived on Thursday morning and have been silently and not-so-silently squealing with glee at every moment. Elsewhere is my kind of heaven. It’s an artist/community space housed in a former thrift store, and it is absolutely chock-a-block FULL with stuff – toys, clothing, fabric, books, dishes, paper, suitcases, furniture, wood scraps, every kind of paraphernalia you can imagine. Artists come in on a regular basis and create works within the museum, using objects from the collection. I kind of can’t believe I get to be here for four weeks.

Arriving here from PEI, right on the heels of the conclusion of the River Clyde Pageant, I was close to burnt out. However, since I’ve stepped into this place, my head is overflowing with ideas…the problem is narrowing them down. Today is our project proposal day, and my proposal is centred around the collection items that grabbed my attention the quickest (first thought best thought?): the collection of vintage clothing that fills two whole rooms, floor to ceiling. I’m still formulating ideas and questions, but the plan is to use the clothes as a prompt for conversations around clothing, memory and identity with Elsewhere folks and local residents, and then find a way to create an installation space for a select number of clothing items and gathered stories and images.

It’s basically an excuse to play an elaborate game of dress up for a month.