Service-Works provides a monthly project grant. The amount of each month’s grant is determined by how much money I earn as a waiter (on a specific night) in a fine-dining restaurant in San Francisco.

Please click here to visit the Service-Works website

Unlicensed Therapist consisted of creating a venue dedicated to conversation.

In 2001, my collaborator and I produced a website that explained how unlicensed therapy differed from licensed therapy. Our philosophy and services were also detailed on the website. In addition to the website, we created an office space in San Francisco’s Mission district. We were operating with paying clients until we received a letter from the Board of Behavioral Sciences informing us that we were not allowed to practice unlicensed therapy without having a license.

This past spring I was asked to revive Unlicensded Therapist as part of an exhibition called Amateurs at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. A small office was constructed in the gallery. During the opening I conducted sessions of varying lengths. I also held open hours for drop-in sessions and took appointments.

Unlicensed Therapist Office, 2008. Installation view.

Letter From Board of Behavioral Sciences, 2001.

An exhibition created during a six-week residency at the Arizona State University Art Museum.

I was invited to do an exhibition and residency at the ASU Art Museum as part of their “Social Studies” initiative. I was given a 2200 square foot museum gallery, some money and support. The exhibition began with an empty gallery that was open to the public. Over the course of my six-week stay I did a variety of projects, several of which can be found below.

Gallery Decoration As Suggested By My Wife

On my first day in the gallery I set up a small office - a desk and some chairs- on an 8 x 8 foot platform on wheels. As I was settling in I noticed that museum goers would peer into the gallery, see me at my desk, and then walk away. There really was no indication - no walltext, no artwork- that they should enter the space. As a solution to this problem, I decorated a portion of the gallery. I contacted my wife, via Gmail Chat, and asked her to provide me with some decorating suggestions. I heeded her advice adding, paint, a mirror, two wind-chimes, a fish, some plants, a rug, and two chairs. I printed an enlarged version of our Gmail Chat and hung it alongside the suggested decor.

Jessie Smith in the ASU Art Museum’s Permanent Collection

Jessie Smith’s Selections From The Permanent Collection (installation view)

While I was Gmail-chatting with my wife a couple named Alastair and Jessie Smith approached my desk and told me that they were in Arizona for three weeks as part of a senior citizens tour from Canada. I briefly explained to them that my wife was giving me suggestions as to how to decorate a portion of the gallery. Jessie Smith suggested adding some paintings so I invited her to return in a few days’ time and choose some works from the museum’s permanent collection.

John Spiak, the museum’s curator, and I took Jessie through the permanent collection as she chose a selection of paintings and sculptures. We hung the work salon style, according to Jessie’s specifications. In addition, there was walltext with a paragraph of Jessie’s writing, as well as my own. We had a small opening for her show for her senior-citizens tour group. Several weeks later I added a video that showed Jessie going through the collection.

Docent

Docent

I enlisted the services of a mascot to act as a docent for my show. Disney-trained, my docent toured people through the exhibition using gestures and lots of physical contact - but no actual talking- to explain my work.

Stills from Other Artists’ Videos

I made myself available as an actor in other artists’ videos. My only stipulations were that I not have any aesthetic involvement and that I be able to show the videos as part of a larger collection of videos in which I appear.

ASU Art Museum Curator, John Spiak’s Office

In an effort to deal with certain pressures to “engage” and “interact” with museum visitors, I relocated the curator’s office into the exhibition space. Prior to moving John Spiak’s office, I photographed it incrementally in about 150 images. Along with the museum preparators, I used the photographs to recreate the space with near perfect accuracy. John worked in his office in the gallery for the duration of the exhibition (about eight weeks).

I am currently working on traveling John and his office to another institution. The long-term goal is to sell the entire office and its contents with the stipulation that whenever it is exhibited, John spends some period of time working out of the space.

A collaboration with my wife which involved hiring Danish actors to play us in a video.

For a recent exhibition in Copenhagen, my wife, Renée Gertler, and I made a video that takes collaboration as its subject. As a married couple nearly every aspect of our lives are fused. But despite the fact that we are both artists, the work that we each do is distinctly separate and our own.

That’s My Side is a dramatization of various conversations Renée and I had surrounding the challenge of how we might work together to produce an exhibition. The video was shot and edited entirely in Copenhagen over the course of four days. It features Danish actors, Penille Albæk Andersen and Jakob Knudsen from the Statens Teater Skole playing the roles of Renée and I. The video is in Danish with English subtitles.

Below are some stills from the video.

A brief conversation about art ideas.

I wrote to Sophie Called and asked to borrow her bed to help me through the break-up process. . .

I sent this letter to Sophie Calle shortly after my girlfriend broke up with me. Approximately one month later I received a full size bed. mattress, frame, linens, pillows, and comforter sent to me by Sophie Calle. I slept in Sophie’s bed for the next six months and corresponded with her via e.mail regarding my emotions and experiences in her bed.

Letter to Sophie Calle

Excerpts from e-mail messages to Sophie Calle, with image of her bed in my apartment

The Bay Area Leisure Foundation provides grants to people living and working in the Bay Area.

In response to an exhibition about leisure I created a foundation that awards $500 leisure grants to people living and working in the Bay Area. I created a website, posters and postcards to publicize the grants. The application process consisted of a short narrative of one’s leisure proposal and an itemized budget. A panel of independent leisure experts selected the grantees from a pool of 85 applicants. Giant checks were presented to the grant recipients at a public reception.

Bay Area Leisure Foundation Homepage

Bay Area Leisure Foundation postcard

A weekly luncheon I prepared for the administrators of an alternative art space in San Francisco.

For six weeks I prepared and served a weekly lunch for the staff of a local alternative art space called Southern Exposure. I encouraged the staff to use the meals as an opportunity to invite members of the community to lunch with them and discuss various issues related to running an alternative art space.

A correspondence with San Francisco based artist, Michael Bernard Loggins.

For several years I volunteered at Creativity Explored, an art center for developmentally disabled adults in San Francisco. One of the artists and I began a correspondence. We exchanged letters sporadically for about three years. Our correspondence was included in an exhibition at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts called “Ten by Twenty.” Our letters were enlarged and adhered to the gallery wall.

Letter to Michael Loggins

A suprise birthday party for my sister, Sara, held at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery.

This project took place at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery. I was invited to participate in an exhibition that opened on my sister’s birthday. I created a surprise birthday party for my sister Sara. I created a vinyl timeline highlighting the major events and anecdotes of her life. Four cakes frosted with images of her at different ages were placed on pedestals. An autographed photo from the cast of her favorite television show hung on the wall. The party existed somewhere in between public and private space as it was a public opening with both strangers and family and friends.

Installation view of Sara’s Birthday

Cake from Sara’s Birthday