desires not even our own

We are raising supplementary funds for a temporary performative public art project taking place now at 405 Centre Street in Hyde Square, Boston 02130. The piece is free and open to the public hosting numerous hands-on workshops lectures and discussions.  This project has been generously funded by NOW and There and Boston’s Transformative Public Art Program.  We are raising  $8,000.00 more to help keep the project open six days a week, which includes paying a team of 12 employees a fair wage and keeping all hands-on workshops, artist talks and conversations free to the public. The space is open for all to come and slow down, sit and be, or to read from a curated library, take in documentaries and on Wednesday nights work on their own projects during open studios, using the space and equipment we have. Your help will also allow the work to be documented and made into a short film. This film be used to continue to raise awareness and help the work travel to other locations. Below is more about the project.

Please see our calendar of events here:  

https://www.desiresnotevenourown.com/events 

Desires not even our own looks at how our own disconnection to ourselves, our needs, and our wants affects the lives of others—specifically, the workers who labor in unfair and dangerous situations--and how our environment is being devastated through overuse of natural resources, pollution, and waste created from our over-production and over-purchasing. This project is an attempt to create the inverse of a fast, compulsive consumer cycle through a quietly disruptive deconstructing slowness, creating a space which propagates empathy through observation, knowledge, and making.

It begins with the thoughtful processing of one ton of used clothing, folding, unknitting and unstitching; bringing the garments back to their smallest parts; acknowledging the hands that made the garments and the resources used.  The desires not even our own shop will then be open to the public, offering an in-depth look at the layered and interlocking problem of American consumer behavior and culture, and also--so we do not despair--simple gestures one can begin to do to break the consumer cycle.  Please come and experience a growing, learning, observing, and making space.  Hands-on workshops, artist talks, and panel discussions will be free and open to the public.  

Humans have a fundamental worth aside from what they project, purchase, or produce.  It is my hope that this project will remind us of this.