Lauren Argo
Life as Art: Live Art Installation
June 4 - June 24, 2006
the enclosed window space at 21c Museum Hotel’s restaurant,
Proof on Main
For 21 days (June 4-June 24), Lexington, KY based installation artist Lauren Argo
lived in an enclosed window space at 21c Museum Hotel’s restaurant, Proof
on Main, at 702 W. Main Street, Louisville, Kentucky. With exception of bathroom
and shower breaks, Argo only used a privacy curtain for changing. Virtually every
aspect of her life on public display behind a glass wall in an 8 x 4 ½ x
12 space. Argo's installation was set in a small space filled with a few everyday
living commodities and artistic materials. At the start of the performance,
the back wall was blank to serve as a canvas for the piece. This wall was filled
with collage throughout the weeks by the artist's inspirations and reactions to
the experience.
Those who were unable to view the installation on-site were welcome to watch live,
online, on this site.
Life As Art: Artist's Statement 4 June 2006
It consumes me, my thoughts, my actions, my being. Perhaps the questions keep
me awake, wide-eyed in the dark because I have never truly been on display.
There is always an entrance and exit to make, giving bookends to the burlesque of
“being”. As an actor I am completely aware at all times when I
am being watched. I feel the sensation of eyes on me and my moves and reactions
become conscious and precise.
In the bathroom mirror I make up myself for my own amusement: stare, stretch, frown,
kiss. Although I feel totally and completely alone, I am still performing
for the mirror image of myself. Do we every stop performing, even for ourselves?
How can anyone on display truly live without performing?
Webster’s Dictionary says that a performer is defined as someone giving a
public presentation. In that case, when an audience is present, the artist
becomes a performer.
By exploring the ideas of public and private, reality and presentation, observer
and performer, I am trying to find out if one can exist without the other.
Because the window insures that the artist is never without the possibility of an
audience, can the artist ever be in a state of living and not performing?
The project’s purpose is to present private life in a public space and naturally
express the experience that comes under such circumstances through performance.
After the performance, the back wall will become the physical representation of
the experience.
About the Artist
Lauren Argo is originally from Cynthiana, Kentucky and is a Gaines Fellow Alumnus
with a Bachelor of Arts in Theater from the University of Kentucky. Lauren's installations
includes Will I Be Pretty?, Who I am and Who I am Not, Fingerprints (University
of Kentucky), METTA (Philadelphia Fringe Festival), Compartmental Memory (Lexington's
Downtown Arts Center, Cincinnati Fringe Festival), Inventing Beauty (2005 Kentucky
Women's Writers Conference), One Of Everything: performing their words (2006 Kentucky
Women's Writers Conference). Lauren's directing credits include Sure Thing(Balagula
Theatre), assisting Benny Sato Ambush with A.M. Sunday (Actor's Guild of Lexington)
Love Poem #98, The Quest for the Black Amulet, and Belle Breezing (University of
Kentucky). Her acting credits include Margrethe in Copenhagen (Balagula Theatre),
Surprise Theatre: Time Flies, Degas Cest Moi, Universal Language (Balagula Theatre)
Rita in Prelude To A Kiss (Studio Players, Lexington), Mother Ghost in the world
premier of C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce (Singletary Center for the Arts), Hilton
in Robin Hood (The Lexington Shakespeare Festival), and numerous productions at
the University of Kentucky including Come Back To the Five Jimmy Dean (Sissy), The
Glory of Living (Carol), and As You Like It (Celia). Lauren has been awarded two
Oswald Research and Creativity Grants and the James W. Rogers Playwriting Award
for her play, The Noise In the Room: based on the Diaries of Carolyn Taylor that
was produced as a University of Kentucky Main stage Production in 2005. She currently
lives in Lexington as a member of the Balagula Theatre group and plans to attend
graduate school for Installation/Performance Studies.
Past Exhibitions
Lauren Argo
Life as Art: Live Art Installation
June 4 - 24, 2006
enclosed window space at 21c Museum Hotel’s restaurant, Proof on Main
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exhibition details