This month for First Thursday Art Walk I've activated my space with my social art Twisted Twister. We laughed and enjoyed playing with the installation.

Twisted Twister

This is not the Milton Bradley variety of Twister. In Twisted Twister visitors are invited to participate in an altered version of the game. The rules are the same, but the colors have changed and so have the body parts. As the players are confronted with and oversized board of colored circles in various sizes covering three surfaces—the floor and two walls— they are required to respond to, “left abductor hallucis- diarylide!” But don’t look to the caller for answers, you’re on your own! And if you can’t take the pressure, you don’t belong in the game. Or so it would seem. Do you dare risk exposure?

We live in a world where information is access and access is privilege. Often, we’re expected to respond with answers to questions, to know, and if you don’t—you’re out, access denied. Like much of my work, Twisted Twister is social art that focuses on permission, access and boundaries. When is it not shameful to be ignorant? The truth is, you don’t know what you don’t know. Ignorance is pre-learning and curiosity is a prerequisite to self-edification.

How we take risks, unwittingly or willingly, perception (ours and others’) and how we feel about ourselves when we fail to get the answer right is at the heart of Twisted Twister.