not going anywhere any way is a site-specific art project that lasted from April - June 2005. Each week, I visited my Grandparents' old neighbourhood in Markham, Ontario and plastered posters consisting of my Grandma's journal entries wherever I could find space.
The postering may have come to an end, but the project still lives on in its electronic form. To find out more, keep reading...
The Story Behind the Project
That’s a picture of my Grandparents, Maitland and Dora Ryan, taken during the summer of 1986. When I was a small child, my Grandparents sold their farm and moved from Cedar Grove to an apartment on Franklin Street in the town of Markham, northeast of Toronto, Canada. I have fond memories of this period in their lives, before their old age caught up with them and before their deaths in 1995 and 1996. Recently, I came across several of my Grandma’s journals, which my Mom kept stashed away in a box filled with my Grandparents’ belongings. I was especially intrigued by a diary written in 1986 by my Grandmother when she lived on Franklin Street, probably because it captures how I remember my Grandparents when I was a child.
How did I get from looking at a journal to the final conception of not going anywhere any way? I suppose the ideas that formed into this project were already in the works when I came across the journals. Recently, I've been intrigued by our need, as humans, to preserve ourselves and our loved ones through amassing information and material objects such as photographs, journals, letters and personal belongings. It seems as if we believe that, through the act of saving and archiving, we will live forever. This process of documentation also serves as a form of remembrance and commemoration, similar to other rituals surrounding death such as funeral services, erecting memorials and visiting gravesites. Let me clarify, though, that I’m not saying that we shouldn’t do these things. I just find this aspect of the culture of humanity to be extremely interesting.
I am also interested in creating art that is not dependant upon the traditional structure of galleries and museums. I’d like to bring what I create out into the public realm, either physically or virtually through the internet. By doing so, I hope to welcome people who would not consider themselves to be artistically minded into collaborating in the art making process. So far, in not going anywhere any way, the public has collaborated with me in this project through our conversations, but also through their interaction with the posters: by choosing whether to tear them down or leave them up, tucking things in them, writing notes for me and even spitting things on them! Through this website, I have also created a forum for the public to express their thoughts, complaints, stories, questions and rants about this project.
Most importantly, on top of all the angles that came together to create this project, I see not going anywhere any way as a tribute and celebration of the lives of my Grandparents, who were two of the kindest people I’ve ever met.