I went to the opening of the Chain Letter Show at Samsøn Project at 450 Harrison in Boston yesterday. I had a piece, as did probably six other people I invited. I’m assuming the concept started with one or two emails, which told people to invite ten artists they admired, which then snowballed from there. With the power of geometric growth, I’m surprised there was only about 1000 pieces in the show, instead of 10,000, but half of my invitations got no response. I’m assuming that those people actually thought the chain email letter actually was a chain letter, and deleted it as spam. Thus, the show becomes an interesting sociological experiment in self-selection. Furthermore, there was very little instruction as to what to send to the show, so it became an additional experiment in artistic self-editing and the balance of community needs (the piece can’t be too big) with self-promotion (the piece can’t be too small).

Anyway, it was fun, and interesting, and I saw a lot of friends and acquaintances there, but the sheer amount of work was overwhelming, especially with the large crowd that assembled to see it all. I did get a few pictures, which I’m posting here.

Salon-style presentation at the Chain Letter Show

Lots and Lots of People

And even more down in the basement

My piece, better picture and explanation coming later.