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James Leonard - tableau of artifacts from A Kiss For Luck, including a photograph, journal, a piece of wood shaving, glove, and paper bag
James Leonard - a portion of a boat's bow, remnant from A Kiss for Luck performance
James Leonard - a spread of seven carving knives on white surface, tools used in A Kiss for Luck
James Leonard - brown paper bag with breakfast and lunch contents written on front, artifact from artist's meals during A Kiss for Luck performance
James Leonard - photo of artist standing on rock ocean breaker while storms brews in background, posed holding a carving knife in each hand
James Leonard - tableau of artifacts from A Kiss For Luck, including a photograph, journal, a piece of wood shaving, glove, and paper bag
James Leonard - a portion of a boat's bow, remnant from A Kiss for Luck performance
James Leonard - a spread of seven carving knives on white surface, tools used in A Kiss for Luck
James Leonard - brown paper bag with breakfast and lunch contents written on front, artifact from artist's meals during A Kiss for Luck performance
James Leonard - photo of artist standing on rock ocean breaker while storms brews in background, posed holding a carving knife in each hand

A Kiss for Luck: Artifacts

$35,000.00

2013
Ephemera, ready for collector's installation

Image of A Kiss for Luck artifacts including: carving knives, photograph, lunch bags, jar of wooden shavings, protective gloves, a journal, and a fragment of the boat bow
A Kiss For Luck wooden boat shards-displayed in a horizontal line-some of the original white paint made visible
A piece of the remaining A Kiss For Luck boat stern, which has been carved out from the rest of the boat's body

This collection of artifacts from the 2013 performance of A Kiss for Luck includes: bow and stern fragments from the wooden boat hull, full set of carving knives used during the performance, one vintage glass mason jar containing wooden boat shavings, a photograph of the artist standing atop ocean waves, a pair of leather work gloves, 19 paper lunch bags—each with artist’s notes of date and food contents consumed during that day's performance, an artist’s journal maintained throughout the performance, and a time lapse video file of A Kiss for Luck.

Vintage mason jar filled with wood shavings, collected from A Kiss For Luck performance
A set of carving knives used during A Kiss For Luck
A set of protective gloves-worn while carving away a wooden boat in A Kiss For Luck performance
A group of brown paper lunch bags spread horizontally-each bag with hand-written note describing meal contents for the day, consumed by James Leonard during his A Kiss For Luck performance
Cover of artist's journal-written in pencil: A Kiss For Luck

Journal Excerpts:

“7-31-13

Day 6 on the boat. Hard to find my sea legs again after two days ashore. Work gets harder the lower she gets. She’s starting to break apart in every way possible.

My knuckles ache. I’m tired. And I wouldn’t rather be doing anything else. No new cut. Lots of new bruises & scrapes all over from old bracings left and right, over and under.

I’m not sure how low she’ll go, but a big hull day is coming soon. 4” - 6” of her from top down.”

“8-10-13

…a tunnel vision of intense focus, repetition and long hours without break. I’ve felt this before as well—just not as often. From asea to shipwrecked to marooned. One more night of intense bizarre dreams. One more day of painful, burning, knuckle exploding motions. Then I can let go.”

Journal entry from A Kiss for Luck performance artwork featuring drawing of boat to be carved away during the project.
Journal pages from James Leonard's A Kiss for Luck, 2013, with side by side lists of expected and unexpected lessons learned during the artwork.
James Leonard journal page from A Kiss for Luck with house of cards drawing.

A Kiss for Luck: Timelapse

Display terms upon request

Click here to request permission for public use.

2013
Video
Duration 15:00

Time lapse documentation of A Kiss For Luck, originally performed in a Manhattan gallery July 23-August 11, 2013. Over the course of three weeks, James Leonard manually eroded a wooden boat into a sea of shavings. The video compresses the entire process into 15 minutes.

During repeated intervals, the artist  can be seen in  rocking motion at the front of the boat. This is Leonard in the act of sharpening his set of 7 carving knives; each knife lost approximately 1.5” of steel over the course of the performance.