With this project I hope to activate a public space in a manner that tells a story, something that goes along with the experience of the viewer. In this case it is the traveling up and down of stairs. My belief is that, if you include a narrative that brings the viewer into a previously created space and turns their actions into a new perspective, you will be more effective in presenting your work, rather than building a space in and of itself. Instead of creating something entirely new, you are manipulating reality ever so slightly, in order to cast everything in a new light.
What I plan to do is to place text and images along the stair case in the CII, along all 9 floors. The placement of the works will correspond to where the viewer's eyes would typically be, when climbing a staircase. For going up they will be placed on the ceiling. For going down, they will be placed at the viewer's feet. Another notable feature of the CII is the large circular windows in the stairwell. These would act as a perfect way to illuminate my images during the day (images in black and white, printed on clear acetate), not only that but once again, these large windows draw your eye to them, drawing you into the experience, even though you are still performing a routine activity.
The narrative itself will be circular in nature. It changes as you go up, and when you reach the top, it directs you out (since you have to leave the stairwell sometime) or back down. As you reach the bottom (or start from there) it directs you up or out. The nature of the text and images will be themed after the ideas of struggle and the achievement of goals (a stairwell seems like the perfect place for it). At the bottom, the top of the building seems like such a distant goal, but as you draw nearer to the top, guided by text and images, the goal seems almost tangible, and when you reach the top, you are faced with the realization that there is no farther to go (just like in real life). There is nothing more to achieve, for your struggle, you are granted essentially a shallow victory, and you have all your dreams taken from you. There is nothing left to struggle for, and in the end it wasn't really worth struggling for. So then you are faced with the choice of leaving while you are at the top, or going back down to where, your goals seem like a distant and beautiful pursuit (the bottom).
