Jenny McMaster

Images from Coffee House Cartography

Couldn't make it to my performance at the Daily Grind during Chinatown Remixed? Check out these lovely pics curtesy Karina Bergmans.

Coffee House Cartography at China Town Remixed

Ready set go! It's my first return to performance art since 2006 and the Cake Show! Helena Blavatsky, meets Relational Art, meets Surrealism! At the Daily Grind Arts Cafe at 601 Sommerset West, May 12th from 1:30 pm to 5pm. The first stop on the China Town Remixed Circuit!

This performance/interactive art piece will use a social variant of the surrealist method of automatism to map the interaction between the artist and passer by. Dressed as a slightly eccentric Edwardian tea drinker and seated at a table in a coffee shop, I will offer tea or coffee to participants. The beverages will be served out a teapots and especially selected it's tendency to drip, over sheets of handmade paper. I will begin conversations with passers by through the use of cards with discussion topics. As the discussions progress, drip patterns and cup rings will be cast on the table's surface. Once enough information has been imprinted for a reading, the given sheet of paper will be set aside and replaced.

Between visitors, I will hand sew the discarded sheets, transforming the drip patterns into continents and the cup rings into compass roses. In such a way, maps of the social space established between the artist and visitors will be created. Participants will be welcomed to view the completed maps online as well as at an upcoming exhibition at Blink Gallery at the end of August.