At this point, self-help culture is as American as, well, you know that particular pie that you might bake up in the fall when things cool off.In American literature, the final mournful chapter of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic The Great Gatsby, shows Gatsby's grieving father Henry C. Gatz sharing a daybook in which a young Gatsby had written a schedule for self-improvement.
In cinema, American Beauty director Sam Mendes and actress Annette Bening render a striking portrait of the failing real estate saleswoman Carolyn Burnham, who turns motivational audiotapes into self-bolstering mantras.
A list of self-help literature in American culture could go on and on, so it's not surprising that other visual and performance artists have taken up these themes, sometimes with a new political twist.
This coming Thursday evening artist Guyanese-American video-performance artist damali abrams, along with A.I.R. Gallery and Self-Help TV will host a Self-Help Swap, an interactive event where participants swap self-help items with one another or merely take items at no cost.
The gathering will be held on June 10th from 6 to 8:00 pm and is free and is open to the public. Here's how they describe the evening:
Self-Help Swap is an opportunity for the public to take free self-help items as well as give away self-help items that they no longer need. This communal interaction is based on Civil Rights era and feminist programs such as the Black Panthers’ free breakfast programs for children or Feminist Consciousness-raising groups. Even in challenging economic times people do not need money to have an opportunity to better themselves. At its core, Self Help Swap is a performative effort to highlight how self-awareness can enhance community-building efforts.I'm going to try to make it if the mass transit of New York City can hurl me down the tube from the Bronx to Brooklyn in time. Subway self-help will be the topic of a future post.
The public is invited to bring books, magazines, tapes, DVDs or CDs related to finances, health, relationships, abuse, and any form of general self-improvement material. Self-Help Swap takes place during abrams’ solo exhibition at A.I.R. Gallery, Autobiography of a Year. This four-channel video installation consists of daily video diary entries and video documentation from each day of 2009.
A.I.R. Gallery is located at:
111 Front Street, #228
Brooklyn, NY 11201
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