vidya: mutual observation

Maybe because I'm a woman, because I'm Indian, because I'm American, because I'm human, or all of the above, I feel really watched walking down the streets here. I've never felt more aware of my race, either. We all do it - we look at one another from afar, but I wanted to push people to put themselves out there, face to face, in front of someone else. Since drawing is seeing, I've set up what I call a "Mutual Observation" booth in several piazzas in Florence. People come to the booth, I do free pencil portraits for them as long as they agree to do one of me. Then we trade. Fun! I give them the drawings envelopes that resemble my "momento" envelopes and seal them with the personal seal I designed in drawing and had engraved for my momentos. I then encourage them to find a stroke of generosity and send the drawing in the mail to someone else. I've also succeeded in opening up a small dialogue about watching, racism, immigration in Italy, and the act of drawing. People are afraid - to come up to my booth, to ask what I'm doing, to actually sit down and draw. I sit for two or three hours and I get two or three people. I assure them that I don't care what the drawing looks like - just that they are courageous enough to do it. The box I carry around with all my stuff is slowly becoming personalized, and it will be my ritual object. All the things one needs to perform this ritual.

I like meeting strangers and talking to them and sharing with them. This, in some ways, is a self-portrait. Because, after all, I am going to end up with a bunch of drawings of me. I'll post pictures as soon as I can of everything from this and the last projects.