'Life as art' (20060606)";
Tarot Reading
There's an unusual addition to the menu at Proof on Main this week, and it has nothing to do with the bison or duck entrees.
Kentucky artist Lauren Argo is calling a small, enclosed window space at the restaurant home sweet home through Saturday.
Argo, a Cynthiana, Ky., native who lives in Lexington, moved into the cozy 8-by-5-foot space facing Main Street last Saturday. Her temporary residence at the restaurant in the new 21C Museum Hotel is part of an exhibit she's dubbed "Life As Art" that is a part of this weekend's grand opening celebration.
Nearly everything the 24-year-old installation artist does for the next five days can be viewed around the clock. From brushing her teeth, styling her hair and putting on makeup to creating art, acting, dancing or sleeping -- it's all on exhibit.
And if you can't make it to Main Street to catch Argo, a Web cam will record her every move on Proof's Web site, proofonmain.com. Plasma screens inside the restaurant also will broadcast Argo's movements.
"I really want to be able to show some of the daily rituals of life," Argo said. "I think it's really important to show these things because this piece is just about looking at life."
Argo will change clothes in the window using a privacy curtain and will leave for short bathroom and shower breaks.
The idea for the exhibit came to fruition after Argo met 21C owners and developers Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown through her older brother, Haviland Argo, one of the architects on the hotel museum.
The four were at a dinner at the Speed Museum in March, and the idea came up in conversation. The next thing she knew, she was quickly preparing to make her debut living in a window.
"The performance is exactly what 21C is all about," Wilson said. "Current, living artists at work in all kind of innovative as well as traditional art mediums. It was meant to reinforce the anticipation for the grand opening and the idea of bringing art to more common places."
So how does Argo plan to keep herself occupied in such cramped quarters for 20-plus hours a day?
For starters, she'll reflect on her weekly experience by creating a multimedia collage on a blank wall in the back of the window using magazine and newspaper clippings, fiber and paint.
You can watch her prepare meals, such as cereal and tuna, as well as do sit-ups, jumping jacks, yoga and dance. She'll also be creating fiber art on a sewing machine and, if you're lucky, she may even give you a tarot card reading through the glass.
On Sunday evening Argo was decorating her new "home," and you could see the few commodities she brought along, including a bedroll for sleeping, a couple of bowls and utensils, water and fruit, a small chair, mirror, lamp and laptop computer.
Other visible items included colorful masks she will use for performing. A silver bell will serve as her tool for communication with Proof on Main staff, and an air horn is on hand for emergencies. Dried tobacco leaves hang on the wall to serve as a reminder of her parents, who still live in Cynthiana.
"I'm living out of Tupperware this week," she said in a reference to several of the large containers holding her art supplies and other necessities.
Her wardrobe hangs on a rod in the front of the window. A pair of red vintage heels, silver sequined flats and red leather cowboy boots that she couldn't resist bringing are strewn on the floor.
A message from Argo handwritten on the glass on Sunday read: "Hey Louisville, it's nice to meet you. I'll be here all week." She invites the public to communicate with her through e-mail and will be responding to as many as she can.
Argo said her only real trepidation about taking on the project was sleeping in the window.
But after spending her first night in the window on Saturday, she was feeling more confident. She awoke Sunday morning to the wide-eyed stares of two young boys.
"I started laughing and waving, and they took off running," she said.
So what are her friends and family saying about her living in a box for the next week with all eyes on her?
Her mother warned her, "Don't do anything that's extremely unattractive," Argo said. And some people are even calling her "the female David Blaine" (the street magician whose stunts include spending 44 days in a Plexiglas box suspended over the Thames River in London and living in an aquarium for a week).
Lauren Argo held up a sign that says, "Have you ever seen anything this strange?" to passers-by, from left, Alyssa Broadwater; her mother, Suzanne; her brother, Ethen; and her sister, Chloe. (By Sam Upshaw Jr., The Courier-Journal)
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