Jaymee Harvey Willms Artist

Madison LaVallee, a fellow graduate student in mixed media at SUNY Albany, and I collaborated this last week to create an interactive installation. We called it Surrogate Place.... Make It Your own. The exhibition involved three stages, or sets, designed to operate as domestic interiors. We created specifically three shared spaces of a home; a kitchen, outdoor space, basement, and living room. In perfect Project Runway fashion, we then provided an accessory wall and "domestic directives" for groups and individuals to follow for specific allotted times. The project was design as a research project for us, but also as something the viewer could relate to and take home with them. Why do we place things in the places we do? Where do our things really belong? How does your understanding of an object shape the way it is used or misused? Video and photos of the manipulated spaces to follow!

"Back of House" That Thing Deserves it's Own Theme Song Rear View That Shit is Like Black Man's Kryptonite Just Like Two Big Bags of Candy Daddy Can Stretch It Out For You So its been while, I have made some pretty big changes. Before I share those changes (hopefully soon) I thought I should share the final resolution of the chairs. The final project was a installation the was titled "Back of House," riffing off of the name for the kitchen in a restaurant as well as a reference to Ass. Yes, that's ass with a capital "A." While installing I listened to Sarah Silverman, Amy Schumer, and Mindy Kaling just to give myself a boost of confidence and humor. That was the tricky line with this work. I constantly was questioning the thin line between flattery and sexual harassment and how to keep humor in the work so viewers wouldn't walk away only feeling depressed or saddened by the language. The issue of sexual harassme...