A twelve page exhibition catalog has been printed in conjunction with the I am Chris Purdie performance.
Accompanying the catalog is a ten minute film documentary.I am Chris Purdie (Documentary--2 minute excerpt) from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.
In the sculpture class I teach, one of the assignments is to build a conceptual piece. Many find the assignment bewildering, because the medium isn’t easily workable, like most substances used by sculptors. For a conceptual work, the artist is building something specifically inside the head of the patron. Most artwork is finished when it is completed as an intellectual circuit—when the patron experiences the work and internalizes it; for each patron, the artwork is a unique experience, and represents a fusion of the artist’s work and intention, and the patron’s memory of the experience. A conceptual work uses this last stage of completion as its primary form, and the sculptor is in essence using the reaction and imagination of the patron as her medium. By way of example, I gave the midterm for my class as Chris.
It is not a big deal to dress like someone else—most do this with their Sunday-go-to-meetin’ clothes. However, it is something else to take on a shared persona with a large group of people, with the express purpose of exploring analogs of social interaction. It is also something else entirely to develop the idea and orchestrate the event. Having Chris discuss his project with my class, explore some of the questions and ideas it germinated, and cap it by politely and firmly giving each of my students their midterm evaluations (in the nicest, most non-confrontational way possible) helped many of my students understand that conceptual art is something that can be done by any artist with drive and intellectual curiosity, and the willingness to document everything. This also led many to the question of whether most art is conceptual, if in the end the art affects the patron. The answer (politely given): of course.
After Chris finished, I took off the hat and glasses, and had a big swig of my Vault. I can’t be someone else forever.
I was part of a live Art Show. I have never seen anything like this before. The artist was my brother, Chris Purdie. He worked on this project for over a year. He dressed in the same clothes everyday.
He fist started thinking about the project when he realized he was uncomfortable at his shows when he interacted with the public. His brother Jason is an actor and Chris thought he could get Jason to go to the show and play “ Chris Purdie”. Better yet I could have several people play me to cover different situations.
For his final project at BYU Chris decided to do a live art show, something new for this area. He had auditions and recruited 35 people – boys and girls to portray “Chris Purdie”. He met with each “Chris” for 2-3 hours. Each person studied Chris’ mannerisms and characteristics and tried to be as much like him as they could.
On the night of the performance, March 6, 2006 we arrived at the Sego Art Center in Provo at 5:30. The show went from 6-9 pm. Over 600 people went throught the gallery during that time. I was very nervous to be “Chris Purdie” and talk to the people there. However, it was quite fun. I talked to lots of people and it was also interesting to listen to the other “Chris Purdies” talk to the public. I thought because I was Chris’ sister I would know most everything about him, but I was amazing at what I learned about him. It was very relaxed and some people stayed for a long time because it was so interesting and different.
We also went to Salt Lake to channel 2 news to advertise for the show. That was an experience! The wanted to know who the real Chris Purdie was and they were told “we all are”. I don’t think they ever realized who the real Chris was. We went to a breakfast/coffee place up there and rode the escalators up and downin a row. People watching were very interested and just wanted to stare at us.
It was kind of weird to dress as a guy, but interesting to see the reactions from people. It made you feel like whenever we meet and sincerely talk to someone, you take a part of them with you.
It was great to be a part of something new. I guess they do live art show a lot in New York and LA, but this was a very different concept for here. People were very open to the excitement of the show. Some were very confused and their main objective was to find the real Chris. As people cam in you could see the confusion in their eyes, but as they talked to the Chris Purdies and felt the excitement, they settled in and enjoyed the experience.
Many of the participants talked about their experiences as Chris Purdie and for most of them it was amazing. It was almost a spiritual experience for some as they worked to get to know him and represent him. They had to change their own characteristics some had to be more quiet and move more slowly. They had to learn how to stand and hold their hands and interact with others differently than they were used to. Most of the performers took this challenge very serious and it will be an experience that will stay with them. Many also want to be involved in similar shows in the future.
I think all together it was a very successful show. Everyone put what they could put into it. Some could have put more, but that is expected. It went so good for Chris. He put a lot of time and hard work into it and it came out exactly how he was expecting. For me, I probably could have worked a little harder on it. I could have studied the character a little more, but I was very scared and I went in there and did it! I’m proud of myself for doing it.
DRESS CODE (UNIFORM listed by priority)
1 - Black frame glasses (sources $1-8 at DI, Savers, dollar stores, or at Claire's in malls)
2 - Black knit watch cap beanie ($3-8 available at many locations, for sure at Uncle Sam's Army/Navy)
3 - Black full zip sweatshirt hoodie
4 - Brown pants
5 - Black t-shirt
6 - Black scarf (can be any black material)
7 - Dark Belt
8 - Dark socks
9 - Black shoes
You are invited to participate in a *happening with the cast of I am Chris Purdie on March 26th 8-10pm.
In conjunction with the Sego Art Center's current exhibition of I am Chris Purdie, the monthly evening with the artist lecture and discussion series will be Thursday March 26th 7-8pm. Please come and join in the discussion. As part of the lecture we will all be going, in uniform, to dinner at Los Hermanos (details below).
Next Thursday evening (March 26th) between 8 and 10 pm all involved will transform Los Hermanos from a restaurant into a gallery.
In groups of 2-6, approximately 5-10 minutes apart we will slowly enter the restaurant, fill it with "Chris Purdie's", and eat dinner.
Thinking in terms of the performance and performers as artwork in a gallery, the maitre d’ becomes the curator placing the art in the gallery, and the servers then become the curatorial staff attending to the needs of the art.
The capacity for Los Hermanos is 210 patrons so we need to invite a lot of people to try to fill it.
Guidelines for Performance
1) Please be serious. (this could be seen as a joke or a stunt so we must stay in character - as far as you know we are just there for dinner)
2) Don't acknowledge the fact that everyone is dressed the same - you are "Chris Purdie".
Please RSVP so we may reserve and assign a time slot for you and your party.
Contact Chris with any questions - chrisdpurdie@hotmail.com 801.426.4696
* A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered as art. Happenings take place anywhere, are often multi-disciplinary, often lack a narrative and frequently seek to involve the audience in some way. Key elements of happenings are planned, but artists sometimes retain room for improvisation. (Wikipedia)
Photographs: Leo Patrone Design: Cole Nielsen
For anyone not up at 6:50am Friday March 6, twenty "Chris Purdie's" were featured on the KUTV 2 Morning News program. (Watch the interview below or click here)
photographs by Brandon Purdie
photos by Brea Sorrell
Thursday was the Mega-Big Purdie Lecture Thingee at UVU (referred by the performers involved as the MBPLTAUVU—not yet, but I hope it catches on). Fully intending to get there a half hour early, I got lost on the way and struggled with finding parking (a massive booger); I ended up getting there barely 5 minutes early. Chris handed one of us Chrises an outline of what Chris wanted to cover, and while techno-dudes were setting up techno-gear (for me, the most recent technological innovation I’m comfortable with was the Timex-Sinclair One Thousand, one of the first Personal Home Computers, complete with 1,000—that’s right, I said 1,000—BYTES of memory; I was very good at programming it to draw circles in less than 45 minutes), the Chrises were able to go over it quickly. A few ideas were bandied about and discussed, but we mostly spent time “getting into character”.
After the introduction, we kind of muttered self-consciously, then we started talking about our show. Very rapidly, it became obvious that each of us was channeling a different aspect of the Chris psyche, and each of us remained consistent to that throughout the performance. No one had planned who was going to say what, how each of us were going to act, or what each person would focus on, but everything worked seamlessly. Chris was rather confrontational (in a focused, inoffensive way), Chris was very obviously uncomfortable in front of so many people, Chris felt emboldened to explain his motivations to the audience, Chris helped keep the discussion to the outline Chris had written in a comfortable and self-deprecating way, and Chris liked to discuss underlying philosophies that had helped formulate and govern the project. Finally, at the end of the panel of Chrises, one of us discussed our social awkwardness, and everyone at the same time fell uncomfortably, awkwardly silent.
It could not have gone more smoothly (aside from my speaker suit malfunctioning).
What was particularly interesting was that afterwards each of us was able to talk to each other comfortably, politely, and at a level of ease with each other that usually takes a significant amount of time to reach. It seemed that, through the Chris experience, each of us had made a certain level of connection with each other. There were a number of lively discussions within our group, but each potential confrontation was politely side-stepped, each disagreement was civil and respectful, each discussion was filled with attempts to understand the other’s point of view, and everyone was painfully, almost irritatingly, polite to each other. Each of us had developed a certain level of empathy and understanding with the other that led more than one member of the audience to wonder if we had already worked with each other for a substantial bit of time.
By the process of connecting with Chris individually, each of us had (by emulating Chris for a moment) connected with that part of the others. It was a very interesting exploration in social interaction, as well as an intriguing view of the effects of social dynamics. And it was very cool to meet others who had been Chris, people with whom I would not mind spending more time, at all.
Monson Hayes - 2009.02.07 - 3 hrs
Joscef Castor - 2009.02.09 - 1.75 hrs
Melissa Myers - 2009.02.09 - 2 hrs
Maren Dennis - 2009.02.10 - 2 hrs
Amanda VanValkenburg - 2009.02.10 - 2 hrs
Gian Pierotti - 2009.02.10 - 1 hr
Aaron Ogilvie - 2009.02.13 - 2 hrs
Christopher Groesbeck - 2009.02.13 - 3.5 hrs
Emily Fox - 2009.02.14 - 2 hrs
Kaneischa Johnson - 2009.02.14 - 1.5 hrs
Jayson Reynolds - 2009.02.14 - 2 hrs
Jason Purdie - 2009.02.23 - 1.5 hrs
Lisa Stoffer - 2009.02.20 - 1 hr
Ashley Mae Christensen - 2009.02.24 - 2 hrs
Austin Neal Lynn Baker - 2 meetings - 3 hrs
Ashlan Schofield - - 2 hrs
Judy Simmons - - 2 hrs
