Loss is Expected...a working rundown

Karen Louis's physically interactive installation Loss is Expected maps the artists personal journey of discovery as told through stories of turbulence and transience in a city sphere. Both playful and melancholic; arcade games, text, sculpture and performance spin, swing, block and dictate movement through a landscape that shifts between an urban playground and solitary confinement.

This is the culmination of my graduate study work at Columbia College in Chicago. The exhibition opens on Friday, April 24th and will run until May 21st, 2009. The space is designed as a performative arena, nodding clearly to my theatre background with borrowed stage flats, specifically crass lighting, and the hope that everything shifts at some point. The goal is imperfection in a carefully constructed area. The flats are painted lightly, with the hope that traffic will change the landscape. I've used pink insulation on some of the more handled aspects of the piece(bumpers, street signs, etc) because they will chip and respond to use, and that is much of the point to this piece. Loss is Expected is equally about the activation the space as well as watching the space either hold up or deteriorate with activation. It's become a durational piece.

As a performance artist, this is an interesting journey. I've created a space that places the observer as the actor, and I'm joining in, as well. This is a durational performance for me. I, too, will enter the space as specific characters who will leave their mark in the same way every character does, and it will be as subtle and as important. I love that. I'm so used to performing on a stage, yet informing those performances with my own experience and life(Strasberg, baby!), so the performance does not merely begin with entering the space. It begins with getting up. It continues with going out. It's a selfish playground, and it's one that we all charter every day. I'm really excited about that aspect, and will update as it goes, and I don't know how they will go...because I haven't gotten there yet...

This is where I have gotten. I've built a space and colored it with text:

The simplicity of building begins with getting up

Some time

We get up and begin

an afterthought

an alarm

the impetus of movement to stay alive

discover what is waiting

Weighted in discovery

get up

go

move

fulfill tasks

set goals

move

contort

shift

hope

transcribe

transpire

grow

settle

assess

hope

wake up

sleep

dream

hope

this is going to get better at some point

Isn’t that the point?

progress

grow

adapt

hope

anchor our roots

spin and swing and laugh off

That which ties us to the ground

Leaded boots

Cement overshoes

Steel toes and wounded woes

Keeping frivolous fantasies firm

And weighted circumstance learned

Reminding us what of we know

About anchoring roots in pavement

They just don’t stick

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The end begins with this:

A wink

A nudge

A promise

A lark

A deeply rooted identity

Unaware that the roots reach

The areas they touch.

A moment of wonder overwhelms

Gripping hands and tightened thighs

That build themselves into a grasp beneath a chin

And movement moves into applause and awe.

Then comes the digestion

Shortness of breath

A separation til part do us death

Staring at the happening

Of a somber cool

Confidence and collection

And the power of the promises made

To follow through to this end

That begins with this :

A wink

A nudge

A lark

A promise to grow old before growing wise

A nudge of building identity

A wink to know that it is time

To greet this end

That begins with this

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V/O to city soundscore

Welcome.

Please take a seat.

Relax.

Close your eyes.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Relax.

Congratulations.

You’ve made it here.

Open the curtain,

See how far you’ve come.

It’s okay if you are not alone.

It’s better that way.

It’s okay if you are alone.

It’s better that way.

See how far you’ve come.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Relax.

It’s okay if you are confused.

It’s better that way.

It’s okay if you are careful.

It’s better that way.

there is no need

to look up

Like a tourist

In the land that you chartered and swung through

With ease

There is no need to look down

For fear of missing the next big thing

While watching your feet walk.

That would be silly.(breathe)

There is no need

to look back

And hold yourself to the

Last blasts,

Heavy hands,

Anchors,

Grasps,

(breathe)

That hold you fast

(breathe)

to the ground

(breathe)

(breathe)

(breathe)

(breathe)

It’s better that way