WHERE TO FIND OUR ART INSTALLATIONS?

OKAY BUT.. WHY?

It's no secret that We Love It Here. But we didn't fall in love with Lethbridge on purpose -- in fact, when I first uprooted my life to relocate to this city, I wasn't intending to stay.  But slowly, bit by bit, Lethbridge got a hold of me. It was a process, though; I actually had to move away first, before I missed it enough to return. But to be fair, I am stubborn & often a slow learner.

I first fell in love with Lethbridge through the windows of the bus, half an hour at a time. I fell in love with the sleepy residential areas, reading street signs & through the familiar faces of those who shared the bus route with me. Day in, day out; never knowing their names, but knowing their stops -- learning their voices yelling "THANK YOU!" as they step off the bus. I fell in love with the people & their quiet, familiar routines. I fell in love with the rush of relief I felt when the bus turned down the street & into view, on a cold day when my fingers were stiff from carrying grocery bags. The flood of warm air accompanying the hssssst of the bus lowering itself to open as I waited. This was a time before cellphones had internet at your fingertips. I spent my bus trips watching out the window & falling in love.

Years later, when we bought a house in Lethbridge, I fell in love with the streets yet again -- this time, on foot. Walking our neighbourhood, admiring the historical houses, imagining their stories. I fell in love with the careful garden accents, the care the community put into their spaces. When a space feels loved & taken care of, people notice; and people fall in love with it, too.

These days, we have a distraction attached to our hands at every moment. We have vehicles that make travel quicker, we have red lights that make us impatient, we live disconnected from our surroundings. These days, we're annoyed to slow for a pedestrian. The world yells at us to "HURRY UP". We're fed excuses for cutting-corners & costs at every crossroad we encounter. We don't even bother to watch for art on the trains as they interrupt us anymore, do we?

And where does this all lead? Who does a disconnected world really benefit? Are we really in this much of a rush to pass time?

Now, I realize it's absurd to suggest a series of strange interactive art experiments can do anything impactful. I know putting some trinkets in a box for a stranger, reading a message someone shared, or creating something you may never receive a "thank you" for isn't going to change a city, let alone a world. Especially now, when the world seems heavier than ever.

But Novembers are usually a dark month for us. They feel like the darkest month all year. Holidays are hard for a lot of people, too. End of years cause reflection, comparison, tallying lists of "What You Meant To Do" and "What You Didn't". I don't know if anyone ever feels like they did enough?

Usually we hibernate a bit over the winter, taking the excuse to Slow Down. Celebrating the end of the year with a marker that We Survived Another One. We know how meaningful that is.

But this time, our November was a little bit different.

Last November, we were assembling components to begin a series of launches that would become The Art Of Curiosity. In the deep of the cold, dark world, we set up boxes around the city, inviting people to visit & find a spark of brightness.

And they did.

During December's coldsnap, when my fingers were stiff from the chill & my skin tingling from blowing snow, we braved empty snowfilled streets to check on the project. I opened boxes to find them so full of gifts they almost fell out.

I am not silly enough to claim that exploring your city, making connections with anonymous neighbours & doing small whimsical kindnesses for those you may never meet will change the world.

But it changed me, & I am part of the world, so it must be changing the world in some way, too.

Did you participate in one of these experiments? We might've made a video about you..

..oh, you're still curious..?

Our modern day surveillance society leads us further & further from true humanity as the "watchful eye" influence spreads. The Art Of Curiosity challenges residents of Lethbridge to consider the messages their surroundings send & which they are passively or actively consuming. This project was created in response to part of an ongoing series we are working on, called Hostile Infrastructure. This project identifies, maps & catalogs the messages we encounter in our daily lives. From municipal bylaw Signs Telling Us No, to blindingly-bright billboard advertisements dotting the streets, to policing of our urban environments & the increased hostility of our infrastructure in attempt to ward off "antisocial" behaviours such as existing without a residence, we consider the greater impact this messaging sends, instills & intensifies within our communities. These days, without benches, residents sit on the concrete while they wait for the buses that once alchemized me from a coastal BC Pastry to a southern Alberta Strudel.

As mentioned earlier, both STRUDELBRAND artists lived in cities far larger than Lethbridge for the majority of their lives, prior to relocating to Lethbridge. This allows us insight based on years of qualitative data. As we watch our city grow in population size, urban "issues" are seemingly magnified by those who have not explored beyond these rural landscapes. Furthermore, we nervously wonder whether these misconceptions of Lethbridge are amplified deliberately in an attempt to build a narrative that is both punitive & reactionary, while also not conductive to solving, or even truly addressing any the issues supposedly so concerned with.

By installing discrete boxes reminiscent of existing city infrastructure, we challenge our role as citizens in this city. What obligations do we have to our communities, to actively attempt to make it better? Are we satisfied to sit idly by, believing the messages that we are fed, or are we actively participating in building the world we would love to live in, in the future. What overlap, if any, already exists? If we plant boxes, like seeds, sprouting quietly within residential streets of our communities, connecting anonymous strangers together through the invitation of Sharing A Piece Of Whimsy, what influence, if any, will this have on our society?

We already know when a community feels cared for, & taken care of, it shapes the way others view it. This inspires others to want to take care of it, too. Can a box ziptied to a pole change the way you see your city? There's only one way to find out.