I have received an e-mail from Pittsburgh artist Dani Lamorte, who is staying in the city as residency and starting out his project: a mixed-media website on the idea of horoscopes. Please check out the site, as the artist updates each day its horoscope for you.Here's the press release for the project:
As part of his residency at Studio Béluga in the Mile End neighborhood of Montréal, 25 year-old American artist Dani Lamorte is asking one question, “Have you read your horoscope today?”
(w)horoscope.org, Lamorte's mixed-media project sets out to question and challenge society's relationship to religion, mysticism, and divination. Publishing daily advice, the website replaces the soft, vague, placating content one usually finds in an astrological projection with biting social critique and unsettling observations.
“If we're really honest with ourselves, we'll recognize that the answers we want from astrology aren't the muted psychobabble we find in newspaper horoscopes.” Lamorte continued, “Instead, we're trying to find answers to the big questions, the really difficult topics: What is death? Why do I lose things I love? What is the point in being alive?”
Difficult topics are the primary domain of the project. Since (w)horoscope.org launched on October 29th, the site has addressed abortion, the existence of God, language laws in Québec, and HIV. According to the artist, these hard-hitting issues are the sources of anxiety which astrology never addresses outright, but certainly should. “Aren't these the problems divination should address in 2011? Shouldn't your horoscope warn you about the risk of contracting HIV this coming weekend or give you advice on that baby you don't want?”
On the project's home page, which is updated daily, visitors find two “astrological signs” to choose from – often absurdist options such as “Fork” and “Spoon.” These “signs” are assigned in an arbitrary manner. People born on dates which are prime numbers, for example, might be “Forks” while the rest of the population are “Spoons.” Each sign has its own "(w)horoscope” which may be in the form of text, video, sound, or a combination of the three.
The word-pun “whoroscope” points to the central concept of the project, Lamorte says. “We're a culture full of mysticism junkies, looking for our next fix. We're looking for anything that will distract us from pondering the big questions for ourselves. We whore ourselves out to churches, organizations, and any new-age product which promises to erase existential anxiety.”
(w)horoscope.org, the website, is to be accompanied by small-scale sculptural works at the studio's post-residency show in mid-February. The show will also feature the work of Béluga's other two artists-in-residence.
“I hope this project makes people ask questions. That's always been a major artistic goal of mine : To inspire questions in others. I love questions, even the ones I can't answer.”
(w)horoscope.org can be viewed here: http://www.whoroscope.org
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