I'm loving 40 days of Public Solitude. If you've not been to the website I'd really encourage you to do so. The live feed is particularly interesting today, it's an artist who is planning to create a cocoon around herself during the day and i guess at some point burst out. The website also has a time lapsed archive of the artist from the previous day, so you can watch the day pass in 5 minutes.
There are various interpretations of the project but for me it's both about Christ's 40 day in the wilderness and his experience of solitude, but also the sense of solitude that many people feel in contemporary society. The feeling that we are living in a box, isolated from people and yet paradoxically so close to them. We strive for community and yet feel isolated.
I'm also struck by the vulnerability of the artist in the box, being watched by passers by and not being able to respond to them. This was brought home to me yesterday by a sticker that was placed on the glass facing in so that only the artist could read it saying: '40 Days of Public Solitude - Loser.' This saddens me, I'm hopeful for humanity, and yet when given the opportunity we simply insult a fellow human.
