Walking Isn’t Art (2022)
Performance and text
As part of the month long exhibition People That Want To Have The Jewels But Don’t, Shirt presented on the New York Public Library’s instagram account through September, one performance saw Shirt recreate and interpret a photo from the archive and announce the street action in real time from NYPL’s public account: “Writing a letter on the street today in Queens at the corner of Vernon Blvd and 34th avenue 3pm.” Not knowing what was written in the original photo nor who was depicted, Shirt wrote this text directly on the sidewalk with a combination of paint markers: “It's not that walking is art. Walking is walking, walking isn't art. But if I say walking is art then it's art, follow me. If I make works on walking, study walking, make objects walking, write walking, record raps walking—then it's art right?” Some time later a comment posted identified the people in the photo as their “art professor and late partner” whose “projects are super inspiring.” And that this person couldn’t believe they came across the images as the Picture Collection is “one of their favorite accounts.”
Additional photos available upon request
Performance and text
As part of the month long exhibition People That Want To Have The Jewels But Don’t, Shirt presented on the New York Public Library’s instagram account through September, one performance saw Shirt recreate and interpret a photo from the archive and announce the street action in real time from NYPL’s public account: “Writing a letter on the street today in Queens at the corner of Vernon Blvd and 34th avenue 3pm.” Not knowing what was written in the original photo nor who was depicted, Shirt wrote this text directly on the sidewalk with a combination of paint markers: “It's not that walking is art. Walking is walking, walking isn't art. But if I say walking is art then it's art, follow me. If I make works on walking, study walking, make objects walking, write walking, record raps walking—then it's art right?” Some time later a comment posted identified the people in the photo as their “art professor and late partner” whose “projects are super inspiring.” And that this person couldn’t believe they came across the images as the Picture Collection is “one of their favorite accounts.”
Additional photos available upon request