Untitled: “what’s your biggest fear?, sidewalk chalk on sidewalk.”

@ http://relationalaesthetics.blogspot.com/

This piece, in keeping with Carmen Suchecki’s participation in the class, is unpretentious and refreshing. The visuals of the sidewalk confessions themselves are uncomfortable and honest. The fears are easy to relate to, or at least to understand. It’s simple. I want a little more. I like that.

I like that, in contrast to Carrie MacQuaid’s confessional work, these confessions had no intermediary. People not only voluntarily gave up very personal information, but wrote it in oversized brightly colored letters in a public place – all by themselves.

I think this intensifies questions raised by MacQuaid’s work. Why would people divulge this information? Granted, they work in very different ways, but overlap along a similar theme of public vs. private. Suchecki’s public fascinates me. What on earth draws people to answer this chalked question? Is it our desire to regress to childish honesty? In that case, the medium is very encouraging.

Maybe given the option to acceptably indulge in such a rudimentary childhood pastime makes us feel that we can say anything fairly insignificantly. We used to write “Johnny loves Jessica” or “Matt smells like Miss Storts’ socks.” Now we can write “I’M AFRAID OF STDs AND MEDIOCRITY” with the same kind of humorous tone, knowing our “biggest fears” will be washed away with the next rain. Is that the allure? Johnny certainly doesn’t love Jessica anymore. And Matt smells great and gets lots of dates. Maybe if I write that I’m afraid of marriage, it won’t be so scary anymore if I wait long enough. I’m keeping an eye on the weather forecasts.