Portfolio > "The Usual" A Create Your Own Adventure Story

(Press Release)

In the show, "The Usual" the Gales Gallery has been transformed into a three-dimensional book work. The walls of the gallery have become the pages of a book with large scale panels depicting a create your own adventure story. Prints and multiple book works are used to describe a simple instance, not necessarily an exciting or extraordinary event, but a common routine that many of us experience on a daily basis. In each work, a story is created in which someone walks into a store, buys something, sits and eats it, and has a thought. A simple event, yes, but in that simplicity the variations in the way in which every aspect of the experience is carried out depending individual choice are highlighted. Variations on a theme are brought to the forefront as the same story is told in a variety of ways by a variety of people.

Jacquelin Heichert is interested in the decision making processes that people use. How does internal logic and an individual’s unique decisions and reasoning impact the minutiae of their life? She believes that the decisions we make on an everyday basis involve an intricate thought process that is rarely explored. Rooted in everyday experiences and imagery, the goal of her work is to make explicit that which is implicit in everyday life.

Heichert’s new book work, "The Usual": A Create Your Own Adventure Story, explores variations in mundane routines. This work revolves around various peoples' perspectives on a story about a routine everyday event told in a fragmented manner. Twenty contributors offer their perspectives on a story, with each person fulfilling a specific choice within the storyline, using the conventions of the popular “Choose Your Own Adventure” children’s books in which the reader and their choices create a story. Consequently, the same book may be read several times, and the reader can make different choices within the storyline to create multiple variations of a simple story. This exhibit explores the choices that one makes through interaction and collaboration, from the subject matter, to its creation through to its execution. There are also many avenues to contribute as others have already done. The format allows for many different perspectives and many different forms of reasoning to be explored on a singular theme, while at the same time bringing them together as a record of collective experiences

The opening reception is on Thursday, November 19th from 7-9pm