Ariana Jacob: As you make your bed, so must you lie in it? October 21-November 15, 2013. Installation view. Portland, Oregon: Regional Arts & Culture Council, 2013.
Social Practice artist Ariana Jacob’s participatory installation was designed to instigate conversations about what it means to be part of the United States. By presenting the U.S. Constitution as the bed we made for ourselves as a country, the artist invited people to consider what lying on that foundation means in both poetic and practical terms-for themselves as individuals, and for the collective entity that is our country. Jacob kept regular hours in the space, inviting people to join her in bed to talk casually about who they are in relation to America’s foundational document and the realities and dreams those words evoke. As the installation progressed, the text of the Constitution was collaboratively commented upon and edited on the walls of the exhibition (which were converted to chalk boards) through discussions between the artist and participants. Jacob, a veteran of conversation-based art, welcomed people to join her in contemplating American identity, addressing the document that legally and symbolically binds us together as a people.
Courtesy of Regional Arts & Culture Council Installation Space Program. © the Artist.
Artist Credit: Ariana Jacob
Exhibition: Regional Arts & Culture Council Installation Space Program; Ariana Jacob: As you make your bed, so must you lie in it? October 21-November 15, 2013