Earth Day Event for Federal Plaza
Wilson relies on fate the way a painter relies on pigment: to add color to an outline. His intrusions into public spaces, both as a solo artist and as half of the duo Men of the World, are typically governed by a set of simple written instructions that leave plenty of room for fate’s intervening hand. In Hour of the 100 Flowers, for example, Wilson and fellow Man of the World Mark Alice Durant told themselves to “arrive at Daley Plaza…and place 100 flowers (red carnations) on one per 3×3 square foot of granite tile. Attached to each stem is the message, ‘We are jewels on a chain.’…For exactly one hour, two men and 100 flowers occupy the public space. Curious passersby are told to take a flower.” The instructions for their wittiest piece, Is Father Dirty?, go: “Men of the World, armed with two paint buckets and soapy water, brushes and cloths, approach various public monuments in downtown Chicago that depict war heroes, patriarchs, founding fathers, etc. Men of the World climb upon these statues and give them a good scrubbing, rinse and proceed to next hero.”
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Such unexpected and unplannable delights essentially complete the gesture that Wilson and his troupe merely begin: it’s fair to say that the concerned grandmother and laughing teenage boy are the true artists here, for without their interaction the event literally goes nowhere. Wilson has a genius for orchestrating poetic interruptions of daily life, placing ambiguous but accessible images in the paths of unsuspecting people who must decide how to respond. Since Wilson never provides any material that might explain his events or put them in context, only the collision between spectator and performers generates meaning. One woman, after watching the performers for a few minutes, launched into a tirade about welfare cheats, government waste, and bureaucratic indifference. To which a stranger replied, “It’s frustrating, isn’t it? Just like it would be explaining all that to one of those motionless people.” Wilson ought to put that guy on the payroll.
