Transform/Sustain
Not For Sale
2018
Socially engaged performance
Duration and footprint variable
Transform/Sustain is a socially engaged artwork, conceived in collaboration with performance artist Hector Canonge and developed for Earth Day Ithaca, a one day event in upstate New York.
Festival attendees were invited to complete two sentences on a simple form: “If I could keep one thing in the world, I would sustain _____“ & “If I could change one thing in the world, I would transform _____.” Meanwhile, Canonge and Leonard, in Tyvec suits, gilded non-biodegradable trash.
75 different people filled out the forms; these were then hung from clotheslines near the station. Over the duration of the performance, gilded trash artifacts were laid on a black velveteen surface for public viewing. Several community members asked to participate in the gilding directly. Children, wanting to contribute to the amassed objects, turned garbage collecting into an impromptu ritual.
