global yawning - for a small planet
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.
First exhibited at the Boston Center for the Arts Mills Gallery in 2008, GLOBAL YAWNING for a Small Planet was an installation, accompanied by still photos and videos of yawning humans. Critchley recorded the yawns of people from Provincetown, Boston, Rhode Island, New York, and DC, and edited them into a continuous study that documents and investigates the health benefits of yawning and its metaphorical relationship to ecological concerns.
GLOBAL YAWNING traveled to Bogota, Colombia with the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics in 2009.
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.
First exhibited at the Boston Center for the Arts Mills Gallery in 2008, GLOBAL YAWNING for a Small Planet was an installation, accompanied by still photos and videos of yawning humans. Critchley recorded the yawns of people from Provincetown, Boston, Rhode Island, New York, and DC, and edited them into a continuous study that documents and investigates the health benefits of yawning and its metaphorical relationship to ecological concerns.
GLOBAL YAWNING traveled to Bogota, Colombia with the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics in 2009.
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