Derek Toomes

Beginning as an institutional critique of the written thesis as a component of my MFA degree, this project came to encompass a performative intervention probing notions of viewer expectation, the reliability of the artist as narrator, and the scope as well as problematic nature of empathy elicited through experiential encounters with art. I constructed and enclosed myself within a tiny modular living space for four days on the premises of the Greensboro Project Space. While viewers could not see me directly, they could view a monitor which mirrored the activities I performed on my own tablet within the box. During this four-day duration, I researched and composed my final MFA Thesis. This work also addressed physical and psychological challenges associated with duration and isolation. With this project, I worked to respond to the notion of artistic risk and to push the degree to which viewers willingly might assign value to conceptual transactions I authored. 

After the completion of the four days, the modular living space was deconstructed and all parts of it were used to create an archive of the performative event, as well as to archive all materials I used or created during my time within the ‘box’. This archive physically transformed the modular living space by compressing it into a dense container with the footprint of a standard palette. The archive, containing the final thesis I wrote and printed during my time in the ‘box’, was also visible within this new container; the entire archive was included in the MFA Thesis Exhibition, curated by Emily Stamey, at the Weatherspoon Art Museum.