Coffee House Cartography 2012
Coffee House Cartography, my first return to performance art since 2006 and the Cake Show! Helena Blavatsky, meets Relational Art, meets Surrealism! At the Daily Grind Arts Cafe at 601 Sommerset West, May 12th from 1:30 pm to 5pm. The first stop on the China Town Remixed Circuit in 2012!
This performance/interactive art piece used a social variant of the surrealist method of automatism to map the interaction between the artist and passer by. Dressed as a slightly eccentric Edwardian tea drinker and seated at a table in a coffee shop, I offered tea to participants. The beverage was served out of a teapot especially selected for it's tendency to drip. I began conversations with passers by through the use of cards with discussion topics. As the discussions progressed, drip patterns and were be cast on sheets of handmade paper.
After the event sewed the discarded table cloth, transforming the drip patterns into continents and the cup rings into compass roses. In such a way, a map of the social space established between the artist and visitors was created. Participants were welcomed to view the completed map during Private Sea and Social Tea Maps (August 2012) at Blink Gallery.