Just the 2 of Us

(Long Walks in Public)

Description:
A year long project of pairing strangers for walks in public space, including:

• Long Walks on the Beach: A public project that provided a framework to literally enact a cliché with a stranger. For two days on Rockaway Beach NYC, randomly paired people signed up to take a long walk together. This was an experience-based artwork that used walking as its medium.
• Long Walks in the Park (birdwatchers and dog walkers): I sought to pair members of two distinct– occasionally oppositional– interest groups of Prospect Park Brooklyn for a walk in the park. In order to promote a neutral atmosphere, participants were asked to keep their dogs and binoculars at home.
• Long Walks in the Museum (ESL students and art interested folks) : A sequence of planned one-on-one walks which pass through galleries designated “Egyptian”, “American”, “Medieval”, “European”, “African/Oceanic/American”, and “Greek” in one of the preeminent cultural institutions of New York City. Long Walks in the Museum was an artwork at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but not officially recognized by the museum, asking among other things, "How are we personally connected, or not connected to cultural lineage on display?"

Information:
Walks, photographs, installation and publication. Exhibited at Untitled As Yet at the Flux Factory curated by Christina Vassallo and Sally Szwed. 2013

Press and mentions:

• Walking Along Rockaway Beach… With A Stranger by Aby Sam Thomas, Untapped Cities Aug. 2012. Link
• What Artists Think is Possible by Harrell Fletcher, Blade of Grass "Growing Dialogue" Apr. 2014. Link
• An Art Projects that Makes Taking Long Walks on the Beach Less Cheesy, Paper Magazine Aug. 2012. Link
• Long Walks on the Beach, Time Out Magazine recommended Aug, 2012. Link

Publication:
"Just the 2 of Us" a book which details the process of this project. Free download available below.

Long Walks on the Beach