DIY Lover

DIY Lover

This is documentation of the full Not Sent Letters performance of DIY Lover. Rina Liddle and I compiled text from a number of different dating guides, self help websites, and construction handbooks. We used this text as a script for the construction of the lover from objects solicited from our contacts. While part of the project was concerned with the absurd in these texts and their essentializing of gender in the construction of rules, another part was the material analysis of text using gendered objects. The interplay between the text and the construction really draws out the emphasis of these texts on control and on responsibility and identity in acquiring and maintaining a relationship. Looks like we are doing it again next month in Portland.