I think another Meaning Cleaning is DEFINITELY in order.
Midtown could be great.
Now that the weather is nice, we can start anywhere and clean anything really.

I like the idea of a walking cleaning, or having a starting point and deciding en route where to stop and what to clean.
I remember at the Domestic Departures workshop, we both thought a lot about that enclave before we actually cleaned it together...maybe we can do a similar thing next weekend?

I also like the idea of cleaning vestibules, or the spaces in between outer and inner.
Thinking about your experience in the yard, the past's carelessness of space "because it's a rental", etc.
I like the idea of scrubbing a space until it's spotless, in line with what we accomplished in Santa Ana.

LES vestibules are usually on the ground floor.
East Village as well, but tend to be locked.

Let's discuss and DO next weekend.

Maintenance and Growth

This year I moved into the bottom floor of the brownstone I've been renting and living in. Spending the last two years wondering why no one was taking care of the very fertile land in the backyard, I would fantasize about all that I could plant down there. This year is the year! However, digging up the yard I found all kinds of trash, just under the surface as this yard had not been cared for in years (I guess because it's a rental property.) I quickly realised that I had a lot of cleaning to do before it would ever yield.

Yes, I think I see what you mean about the daily cleaning of self, home, garden or green space, beach, street, and building as somehow like maintaining our composure in a world where consumption and speed are taking precedence. Maintainence is necessary and perhaps therefore, taken forgranted... "who has time for that now?" I suppose it's some psychological thing we do, compartMENTALizing public and private in order to cope with an urban environment. Being creatures of habit, we live almost like we're in seperate worlds even though it's all layers of the same. I wonder how this happens? A bit psychotic, don't you think? Or perhaps it's a lack of a feeling of ownership? Hmmm... then this get's tricky because our thinking spreads into everything; even how we see ourselves, and lack of ownership of self along with lack of connection with environment is enslavement.


Shall we do a street sweep soon? Maybe up in the midtown area?

scrub the floor
do the dishes
wash my hair
wash the stains away
clean the kitchen
sweep
mop
untangle
clean up the mess
keep it together

Meaning Cleaning: Beach Edition

I played hookey and went to the beach yesterday with a friend.
We were surrounded by many groups of Long Island teenagers who apparently didn't have to go to school this week.

As the day went on, the groups began to leave the beach, and every group I saw left much of their trash behind.
It was staggering actually to see the pattern.

I performed an emergency MeaningCleaning: Beach Edition.

After one group around us left, I promptly began picking up after them. They left behind close to a dozen water bottles, beer cans, potato chip bags, and other garbage.

Another group left behind mostly gatorade bottles and water bottles.

It made me a little depressed to see what I perceived as middle to upper middle class youth be so unaware and careless of the environment around them. What it means to clean up after oneself seemed to have been lost on them.

The third group around us saw me picking up after the first two groups, and hopefully picked up all their trash when they left.
Let's hope so.



I found the above image online, and thought it was an interesting way to display the problems of littering.
But then again what better way to provide a solution that to be the change?
Meaning Cleaning

Meaning Cleaning April 2008

Art in Odd Places application for Meaning Cleaning

For the upcoming Art In Odd Places slated for October 2008, Hayley Severns and Angela Rose Voulgarelis Illgen propose a collaborative cleaning performance (“Meaning Cleaning”) in the Meatpacking District on 14th street.

Dressed in professional business attire, we would begin sweeping the sidewalks together from one end of the district to the other. Supplied with simple push brooms and a large portable garbage can, our aim would be to push the debris from the street in one continuous pile until it reaches the desired end location, and then cart the debris away. We would not block the sidewalk or street, but rather subtly re-direct foot traffic with our performance as we swept.

As we activate the space, we welcome interaction with the public. We play with some of the expected roles and unsaid rules that come along with the sectioning off of "high brow" and "low brow" sections of public spaces. And, speaking frankly, it is unusual for two white women dressed in suits to be sweeping the streets of New York City.

The performance can exist on one day, or can be repeated over the course of the month. The Meatpacking district is not a strict perimeter; however, we are interested in performing in that area because it has transformed from an actual meat packing district into one of the more expensive neighborhoods in New York. Regardless of how many times Meaning Cleaning is performed, the professional “uniform” will remain the same.

Meaning Cleaning not only brings “women’s work” back into the public sphere, but also plays with notions of acceptable public behavior and social “norms”. In addition, our work maintains the lineage of Feminist and Conceptual artists before us, primarily Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Marina Abronovic, Joseph Beuys, and countless others.

Our performances take responsibility for our shared urban environment, which is why we feel strongly that Meaning Cleaning is pertinent to submit to A.I.O.P. In addition, in light of the upcoming closing of Florent, we feel Meaning Cleaning is especially relevant for this year’s cycle.

To bring to light what we as a community discard is to bring to light the human condition. Our actions provide a fundamentally different approach to the perceived lack of care for the immediate environment; our focus as artists is on the foundation beneath our feet, to be reminded of our interconnection. As independent artists, we began working together in 2005, and have since cleaned public spaces together in Europe and the US.

Our collaborative cleaning performance would be graciously removing the refuse and at the same time taking responsibility for our community. Without breaking any local laws, and dressed in a way that plays with social codes and acceptable public behavior, our performance also hopes to bring some much needed conscientious irony and humor to the streets of New York.

It would be a pleasure to bring our performance to A.I.O.P "Pedestrian" this October 2008. Thank you in advance for the consideration.