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What is the Million Dollar Flea Market?
The MILLION DOLLAR
FLEA MARKET is an interactive multimedia performance work about survival
and money. It operates on many different levels.
First, there is the physical installation which is adaptable
to any space. This consists of a giant-still life collaged from hundreds
of objects collected from flea markets.
These objects which were once very valuable are of little or no interest
to a dealer or collector because they are chipped or broken. The artist's
intention is to restore them to their original value by recycling them
in the world of art. Each object is labeled with a gold and red seal that
says: recycled by Elaine -Elaine.
The giant still-life is only a part of an overall environment built from
life size cartoon diaramas of colorful flea market dealers' booths from
which actual dealers sell their products. Also incorporated into this
environment are documentaries of flea markets and real-time trading over
the Internet.
Everything is for sale! I'm tired of being poor.. says the Artist
Next to the area in which the environment is installed is a booth from
which souvenir items created by the artist are for sale. There are the
recycled objects or 'sculptures', each one enclosed in plexi and signed
by the artist; the million-dollar bill, T-shirts, posters, badges, 3-D
photos, diaramas, prints of the flea market embedded in handmade paper,
photographs, and paintings. All are inscribed by the artist.
Art reflects the times in which we live ...says Elaine Elaine
The idea for creating the MILLION DOLLAR FLEA MARKET grew from the artist's
experience as a flea market dealer. This experience made her redefine
her views of art.
"I've had
to find a unique way to support my belief system in art...to keep going
as an artist when I became poor. I stopped painting romantic idealism.
It was too difficult to sustain that imagery while doing hard labor.
I found that by turning
selling furniture at the flea market into an art experience, I have been
able to take what is tedious and difficult and make it into an experience
which is meaningful and fun."
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Installation-Performance Work
"I view
the flea market as performance art. Theater within theater. There
is the total over view of the market. There is the individual dealer.
Each dealer creates theater by setting up a booth and attracting audiences.
Booths, like stage sets, are built from selected merchandise which
symbolize stage
sets and props.
Dealers who sell over a long period of time create recognizable character
roles. These roles are reinforced by the way in which their merchandise
is displayed and the thrust of their sales pitch.
The audience is the people who come to buy. The audience gets to interact
with the dealer (performer) with whom the buyer most identifies.
The more
the audience explores the Million Dollar Flea market, the more they
see. They begin to visualize new combinations of objects. This interaction
of the audience with the work allows the audience to become performer...the
ARTIST. |
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Artist
As Corporation
The MILLION DOLLAR FLEA MARKET is a traveling show. It is set up in new
locations throughout the country using objects from local flea markets.
It travels to foreign countries. It eventually becomes a corporate business
- goes IPO and is traded on the stock market. Ergo - Artist as corporation.
The installation and performance aspects of the MILLION DOLLAR FLEA MARKET
vary according to the space in which it is installed.
For nonprofit fundraising events, profits are shared on a percentage basis
with the sponsor organization. In another type of space, the work is auctioned
off after the installation is previewed. The object is to make everything
disappear, like the flea market, at the end of the selling day or weekend.
Living in the Transient Moment...
The philosophy explored in The MILLION DOLLAR FLEA MARKET is the rapidly
changing structure of our society; something the artist calls the transient
moment. She
is asking the question: Is it possible to find security in the transient
moment?
The MILLION DOLLAR FLEA MARKET is a mixture of punk, junk, and horseplay.
Prophetic. Sincere. Not to be dismissed, but on the other hand, to be
enjoyed. There
is something in it for everyone. An anthology for the historian. Anthropology
for the explorer. Treasures for the collector.
People are brought together for a transient moment to share an experience,
and then, once connected, leave to go their own way. Like the flea market...who
knows what will happen?
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