The site for the installation struck me immediately as the underside of a freeway overpass.
My partner on this project, Marissa, and I, drew inspiration from the space, and decided to make an instillation that subtly caught people’s eyes, and drew them in with curiosity. As people walk by on their way to classes, I want them to do more than just walk by, and maybe take a second or two, for whatever reason. I want people to wonder, even for a second, if someone has been living there. And hopefully they will contemplate how they would react to that knowledge and how they would interact with the person who lived there.
We purchased a sleeping bag, a blanket, and a hoodie and assembled them underneath the overhang. I crawled into the sleeping bag with the blanket, in order to make it look like a somewhat real habitation that a person had just rolled out of. We collected some bottles and cans and placed them next to the sleeping bag, spilling out of paper grocery bag. I procured an old backpack from a friend, and set it up at the foot of the sleeping area. I dumpster dove in order to rip off some cardboard from a box. I wrote on it, “will work for food,” and set it up next to the backpack.
In my hometown of SanDiego it seems like under every overpass there is living one or more homeless people. Standing on the median of streets, sleeping on church steps, homeless people are a fixture of my world when at home. These people become a part of the city scenery, and I become desensitized. Here at Westmont, I spend most of my time on our well-manicured campus. Rarely do I walk around Santa Barbara, where I would undoubtedly see several homeless people. When I am at home I get used to seeing these people, and desensitize myself to their plight. When I am at school, I forget that they even exist. I don’t want to get used to it. I don’t want to forget. And I don’t want anyone else to either.
I really don’t have any passionate call to action, nor any answers for how to love these people better. I just know that I need to recognize that they and I exist in the same world, and perhaps I can do more than just walk by.
My partner on this project, Marissa, and I, drew inspiration from the space, and decided to make an instillation that subtly caught people’s eyes, and drew them in with curiosity. As people walk by on their way to classes, I want them to do more than just walk by, and maybe take a second or two, for whatever reason. I want people to wonder, even for a second, if someone has been living there. And hopefully they will contemplate how they would react to that knowledge and how they would interact with the person who lived there.
We purchased a sleeping bag, a blanket, and a hoodie and assembled them underneath the overhang. I crawled into the sleeping bag with the blanket, in order to make it look like a somewhat real habitation that a person had just rolled out of. We collected some bottles and cans and placed them next to the sleeping bag, spilling out of paper grocery bag. I procured an old backpack from a friend, and set it up at the foot of the sleeping area. I dumpster dove in order to rip off some cardboard from a box. I wrote on it, “will work for food,” and set it up next to the backpack.
In my hometown of SanDiego it seems like under every overpass there is living one or more homeless people. Standing on the median of streets, sleeping on church steps, homeless people are a fixture of my world when at home. These people become a part of the city scenery, and I become desensitized. Here at Westmont, I spend most of my time on our well-manicured campus. Rarely do I walk around Santa Barbara, where I would undoubtedly see several homeless people. When I am at home I get used to seeing these people, and desensitize myself to their plight. When I am at school, I forget that they even exist. I don’t want to get used to it. I don’t want to forget. And I don’t want anyone else to either.
I really don’t have any passionate call to action, nor any answers for how to love these people better. I just know that I need to recognize that they and I exist in the same world, and perhaps I can do more than just walk by.
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