Take One: A Gifting Performance: Agenda

 

For three seven–hour shifts on March 9th, 10th, and 11th, at the Pool Art Fair in New York City, I performed "Take One: A Gifting Performance." In the performance, I offered to inscribe the first names of fair visitors in my Englyph writing system using a set of custom laser cut plexiglas stencils that feature the system's alphabetical glyphs.

 

Over the course of the Fair, I inscribed one hundred and thirty (130) names.  I developed a routine, detailed below:

 

1. Greet room visitor

 

2. Introduce visitor to the Englyph writing system, as embodied in the work on display

 

3. Describe the Take One performance to the visitor

 

4. Ask visitor if she would like to receive a gift

 

5. If the visitor accepts, ask her to spell her name clearly

 

6. Write the visitor's name backwards on a sheet of paper to ensure correct spelling, ordering and centering of nested Englyph glyphs

 

7. Obtain a blank postcard

 

8. Inscribe the visitor's name in Englyph using the appropriate stencils

 

9. Sign finished postcard with Englyph name inscription

 

10. Offer finished postcard to visitor

 

11. Note to visitor that the reverse of inscribed postcard features an invitation to a forthcoming exhibition in New York City.

 

 

Tim Roseborough, March 2012