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view photo gallery
photos by: Jordan Ellis
Randolph Croft &
Cat McPherson
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15 Minutes of Fame is an interactive installation created and facilitated by Amanta Scott, featuring:
• a bare prison bed (from the former Kingston Penitentiary for Women)
• a prison blanket, sheet & pillow; and,
• a standard-issue prison suitcase containing assorted personal items . . .
Visitors are invited to:
• claim their own 15 Minutes of Fame
• open the suitcase
• consider the contents
• select and arrange items upon or around the bed to create a new installation:
a personal artistic statement inspired by the objects.
After creating an installation, visitors are then invited to discuss their work with other viewers.
The ensuing discussions and exchanges are fascinating.
Discussion and visitor interaction is facilitated by Amanta Scott who encourages visitors to explore their unconscious actions, to consider and explain why they placed an object in a given place, what they were trying to convey, how they felt, what role they played within the installation and how the work affected them personally.
Visitors are encouraged to write about their installation in the on-site Book of Fame.
Other visitors are invited to add comments about any installations in the Book of Fame.
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HISTORY:
Parallel Lines • 15 Minutes of Fame has been exhibited and presented in a variety of contexts since 2005.
In 2004, Amanta received a commission to create sculptures with waste from government buildings, including prison beds from Correctional Services Canada. The resulting series: LockDown, and 15 Minutes of Fame premiered at the Art Gallery of Algoma in 2005, open to the general public during a six- week exhibition and presented in workshop events to women in shelters and youth from juvenile detention centres, as well as to school groups.
One juvenile delinquent returned to the gallery a week after his visit asking to ‘do’ another installation and include a photograph of himself and his family, which he felt should be placed in the empty picture frame found in the suitcase. Here was a kid who’d never been in an art gallery before in his life, who’d been moved to such a degree that he felt compelled to return and invest himself in the artwork.
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In 2008 Amanta was selected as a featured artist in ScotiaBank Nuit Blanche, curated by Wayne Baerwaldt with 15 Minutes of Fame and the first stages of Parallel Lines. The work garnered over 2600 visitors throughout the evening. People were lined up around the block all night long. For 12 hours non-stop she introduced the work; facilitated discussion amongst people of all ages and cultural backgrounds; and watched delighted as participants actively engaged and interacted with the works.
In one instance, an unassuming little South Asian grandmother approached the bed and commenced a silent enactment of grief and confusion depicting the experience of being incarcerated against her will, of having to choose between her children and having to leave one behind when suddenly and inexplicably released from prison. The audience was riveted. Afterwards, in halting English, with the help of a translator, the woman elaborated on her performance. Speechless, the audience, gave her a standing ovation.
Later a wheelchair-bound woman created an installation and described a horrific journey to hell and back: a road accident with a drunk driver left her paralyzed, she lost her job as a paralegal, ended up living in a shelter, lost her kids, lost everything and hit bottom. Finally she started climbing her way back up. Now she is studying to be a social worker counselling the homeless.
In June 2009, UNHCR presented 15 Minutes of Fame as an exhibit and outreach event for refugees and immigrants in World Refugee Day Toronto.
Parallel Lines • 15 Minutes of Fame also featured at Cube Gallery, Ottawa; and Living Arts Centre, Mississauga in 2009.
Parallel Lines • 15 Minutes of Fame will be exhibited at FIMA, in Montreal, July 2011. |
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