day one

day one
My name is Jo Nasvik and The Missoula Dress Project is a one-month performance art piece as part of my BFA thesis. As an artist I am interested in the intersection of street art, performance art, and drawing. During the month of February I have committed to wearing this wedding gown daily and will be sewing and pinning onto the dress the evidence of my consumption. Such as coffee cups, wrappers, plastic bags, paper scraps, aluminum cans.....and so on. It is important to me that my art has cultural meaning, so I chose a wedding dress to indicate the excessive "marriage" between consumers and industry.


Monday, February 13, 2012

Day 13
    My optimism took a turn and for some reason, last night I began to doubt myself. For the first time since this idea came to me, I couldn't make sense of it. Why was I trying to make this trash pretty when the truth is so ugly. When I began this project, I did not know how it was going to go or how I was going to attach all of this waste to my dress. I began spending time manipulating and creating things out of the trash and realized that the time working made sense considering the little time we normally spend with these objects. In a way, it has been easier for me to disguise the evidence so that I can be proud of it rather than acknowledge my own weaknesses. If I can't accept my own waste, how can I expect others to do the same. I see now that I can manipulate the evidence, but I still represent it. I am wearing a gown made of a collection of the products I buy and support, a direct representation. What do I represent? This is a question we need to ask ourselves and consider when we buy and support our contributors. I know that this project and idea will change throughout this month as well as how this experience will change me. Doubt is a weakness and the faster we can overcome it, the faster we can move forward.
I will update photos tomorrow.
* If you haven't seen the documentary Wasteland, I suggest you watch it
* Also check out on Youtube: The Story of Stuff
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 15, 2012 at 3:34 PM

    Is it possible, Jo, that we should be spending more time with the things we so carelessly throw away, not in a strange hoarding sense, but to give us a moment to appreciate the time and work it originally took to create these objects? Plastic, styrofoam ..... These things didn't just appear. The conscious thought and dedication of human minds created them, then made the production of them so precise and efficient that they are available to provide water, medication, even components of housing, without a second thought. Your dress allows people to consider this and hopefully we, the consumer, will indeed spend more time with our disposable water bottle, recognize the producer and pay homage to our fellow human by preserving the environment - using that bottle again (and again.....)
    Know that your project is supported - it is more important than you know.

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