Rockin’ Mommy Love is a performance created by Lisa Levy to allow people to identify and express their desire to be held and comforted as they were as children. Believing the potential “healing” quality of public performance, Lisa has designed a public situation where she will be dressed as an elderly lady sitting in a rocking chair, offering to rock and comfort people as they pass by.
The installation, in which Moulton performed in early May, will remain on view for Bushwick Open Studios. It includes household items including a “touch” lamp, talking horoscope clock, white noise machine, figurines, planters, neti pot, massage tools, and a shelf that fits over a toilet. Strings will form connections between items invoking a colored string therapy developed in the Netherlands in the 1970s. String and fabric will also be arranged to create an enneagram and all materials will be aligned to reflect the results of personality tests. The installation is accompanied by a soundtrack from the performance.
This piece presents a yes/no, on/off, 1/0 mode of interaction between the artwork and the viewer. The viewer controls illumination of the artwork and the artwork responds by denying the pleasure of observation. Originally created in 1993 during the saturation of the Internet into our daily lives, the piece, which was also inspired by the film Rear Window (Hitchcock 1954), wrestles with issues of antagonism, voyeurism, power and communication. Now remade and modified as Untitled Box 2.0, the piece returns to these issues in a world of constant connectivity, networking and surveillance. This interactive sculpture will be on display for the duration of Bushwick Open Studios.
Lisa Levy, Shana Moulton, Oliver Warden, Agape Enterprise, Rockin’ Mommy Love, The Line Where Your Appearance Flips Over Into Reality, Untitled Box 2.0, Agape Enterprise, , 56 Bogart St. / 2 Harrison Pl. / 1 Grattan St.
