Public Domestications

Filed under Ongoing Event, Installation, projects

Event Information

Artist: Huong Ngo + Colin McMullan

The Company in a Case: Wandering Players for Found Performers (a Collapsible Puppet Theater)

Huong Ngo and Colin McMullan will create temporary domestic environments with found carpets, chairs, and tables where people can relax and meet. Additionally, they will create public installations to facilitate the sharing of goods and information.

Public Domestications is a series of live performances and impromptu installations that are aimed at transforming urban environments into tableaus for gathering, conversation, and play. Geared towards easing feelings of alienation people have about the environments in which they live and work, the actions will range from creating temporary domestic environments to creating more permanent urban installations.

Using mostly found objects and employing the advice, help and participation of locals, McMullan and Ngo will create and install a puppet theater with puppets attached, which passersby can operate and enjoy. They will build miniature corner libraries, modeled on the city’s ubiquitous commercial newspaper boxes, that could serve as information centers for people living or working on a particular block to share ideas, stories, zines and books, encouraging the alternative press. They will embed tables and chairs into walls, so that they can be folded down for tea parties, artist studios, or chess matches. They will establish neighborhood junk drawers, which, stocked with light bulbs, spools of thread and other sundries, could double as a place to swap used clothes and toys.

Wandering around the neighborhood, starting at the HQ.