GLOBAL YAWNING for a small planet - A NEW DAY IS YAWNING
AT AN EXHIBITION AT THE BOSTON CENTER FOR THE ARTS MILLS GALLERY
OPENING FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 6:00-8:00 PM, THROUGH MARCH 30, 2008.
GREED, GUILT & GRAPPLING – SIX ARTISTS RESPOND TO CLIMATE CHANGE INCLUDES CRITCHLEY, MAGS HARRIES, LAJOS HEDER, MICHAEL SHERIDAN, JOHN TAGUIRI AND CLARA WAINWRIGHT.
Provincetown artist Jay Critchley launches his new project: GLOBAL YAWNING for a small planet – A new day is yawning at an exhibition at the Boston Center for the Arts Mills Gallery, opening Friday, February 1 from 6:00-8:00 pm. The show runs through March 30.
The show, Greed, Guilt & Grappling – Six Artists Respond to Climate Change, is curated by Mags Harries and Clara Wainwright and includes Critchley, Harries, Lajos Heder, Michael Sheridan, John Taguiri and Wainwright.
Critchley responds to an exhausted, ailing planet with his signature style of humor and provocation – the personal is planetary. It’s been shown that yawning increases alertness, reduces stress and enhances personal, community and planetary health. We yawn to cool the brain; we act to cool the Earth. Yawning brings the issue right back to the human body and how we move beyond survival and begin to act, to breath, to release.
Yawning is mysterious, without definitive explanation. Is it a herd instinct, synchronizing mood behavior among gregarious animals? Adelie Penguins employ yawning in their courtship rituals. All agree, yawning feels good, although socially embarrassing. It is an essential, human, crosse-cultural activity that can be liberating, re-energizing, sometimes producing feelings of vulnerability.
The project is also a study in human portraiture, and the shunned expression of yawning. The two-channel, side by side videos show the subtle, distinct expressions of the participants and the artist himself, flanked by large format photos of his yawning image.
With a humorous play on words and juxtaposition of ideas, we human beings, with all our vulnerabilities, become active participants for a healthy planet. The artist traveled the East Coast videotaping yawners, and worked with Boston Asian YES, Ellis Memorial, United South End Settlements and Cambridge School of Weston.
Critchley lives year round in Provincetown, MA and is represented by artSTRAND. From performances, rituals and State House legislation to his Big Dig “BigTwig” project and award-winning Martucket Eyeland Resort & Theme Park, his eco-activist art goes back to the early 1980s with his Provincetown “sand car” series. He is an expert yawner, bringing decades of yawning experience to the project. Last summer he created the public art project, Beige Motel, on Route 6, North Truro, and his work was featured at shows at the Andy Warhol Museum and The LAB in San Francisco.
