eating oranges after dark: a public art project by karen elaine spencer.
i do agree. it seems banal, simple.
but, when i am alone, i do feel a sense of unease in assuming a place, in taking up space. the feeling is subtle, but there, this anxiety about occupying public space …especially when there is no sanctioned reason behind it. and in this “performance” i eat an orange in public for the sake of eating an orange in public. i am not watching my kids in the park, i am not on a break from work, i have no real reason to be where i am doing what i am doing.
there is a vulnerability exposed through eating alone in public. making public this private act of self preservation. the peeling of the skin, the sectioning of the orange, the leisure in taking time to nourish oneself. all this further complicated by the deliberate placing of the peel and the taking of a photograph. to then walk away, leaving the peel behind, a slight transgression of the proper. “evidence” that refuses to be put in its allotted space.
