guerrilla artist-in-residence event #2.

A typical artist-in-residence is in full agreement and supportive of the institution for which they're working. What happens when this relationship isn't developed and the artist is free to work amid the institution's grounds without the influence of favor? Or worse, what happens if the artist is completely against the place and functions as a terrorist (of sorts) as a critique of its affiliations and values. I'm spending two weeks coming and going from Home Depot as I please, researching my role as an artist in a privately-owned public environment, enhancing the role of the market as a center for cultural investigation, initiating internal and public discourse about the relationships among art, capitalism, money, politics and private property.

I'm currently at work as Home Depot's guerrilla artist-in-residence. Each day I've been going into the Home Depot on Sunset in a self-made uniform and creating some kind of experience for both myself and the people at the store. Early Friday evening I'm organizing a group to go into the store, wander around through the aisles, find products that you think would make a nice musical instrument, and then accrete into a small ensemble. Why not alleviate the constant consuming with a little bit of creation? At most I'd like to get other customers interested in playing with us, and at least we'd just provide them with some entertainment. LA has more of a lack of public space than almost every other city, thus I feel extra justified in wanting to turn a Home Depot aisle into a place for recreation and congregation. Don't you? At the end of our music improvisation--the ending will be determined by either us or the store-- we'll play the items as we return them to their shelves, then leave. Please let me know if you're interested in coming!

My writing advisor Christine told me the Home Depot equivalent in Australia has a "sausage sizzle in the car park" every Sunday afternoon. What has led the American people to become subservient in the power relationship with businesses? Let's take back our land from these fat cats. It's popularly believed that you have lived the American Dream if you own your own house, backyard, lawn, driveway and car, and have a wife and kids to live it with, best epitomised by the suburban lifestyle. What business feeds off this idealism better than Home Depot, this "dream" of an exclusive club of family units, flaunting their materials, these gods and goddesses granting power only to those who share the same ideology (mythology?) and have the same advantageous predispositions to succeed in life?