Rebecca was selected as the Target Studio for Creative Collaboration at the Weisman Art Museum (WAM), for academic year 2016-17 where she worked with Guest Curator Laura Wertheim Joseph, PhD, who conceived events and programming centered on the multimedia installation The Talking Cure by NY based artist Melissa Stern. As the name implies, Melissa’s work explores themes from psychoanalysis. The Talking Cure was comprised of 12 figurative sculptures, made by Melissa - that she then invited 12 writers to create a story for - and then in turn, she invited 12 actors to read the narratives that are recorded for gallery visitors to listen to on their phones.
The Talking Cure featured an interactive art piece by artist-in-residence Rebecca Krinke titled What Needs to be Said? The work was inspired by Japanese tokonoma. The tokonoma is a raised alcove space often found in traditional Japanese architecture and used to comment, question, or illuminate aspects of existence. Krinke’s tokonoma of sorts poses the question “What needs to be said?” asking viewers to respond on provided sheets of paper and to choose to either pin their response to the sculpture, allowing for it to be read, or to deposit it in a frosted glass vessel where it was eventually burned. The piece provides a platform for the visitors to explore, what curator Laura Joseph calls, “the cathartic possibilities of speaking up.” According to the artist, the work emerged in response to a “tremendous need for new places and objects to address our emotional lives.”
What Needs to be Said?
The Target Studio for Creative Collaboration (Weisman Art Museum) exhibition The Talking Cure featured an interactive art piece by artist-in-residence Rebecca Krinke titled What Needs to be Said?. The work was inspired by Japanese tokonoma. The tokonoma is a raised alcove space often found in traditional Japanese architecture and used to comment, question, or illuminate aspects of existence. Krinke’s tokonoma of sorts poses the question “What needs to be said?” asking viewers to respond on provided sheets of paper and to choose to either pin their response to the sculpture, allowing for it to be read, or to deposit it in a frosted glass vessel where it was eventually burned. The piece provides a platform for the visitors to explore, what curator Laura Joseph calls, “the cathartic possibilities of speaking up.” According to the artist, the work emerged in response to a “tremendous need for new places and objects to address our emotional lives.” Shaped by the unique participation of the Weisman Art Museum’s visitors, this interactive piece is meant to engage participants and evolve over time.
The burning was really an emotional event for me. Seeing all the people gathered to be part of it, and to gather around the fire with four people close to the project over its duration was beautiful and poignant (my grad assistants are graduating!). When I read the one public message that I chose from among the hundreds of them contributed to the project – my voice unexpectedly cracked – as the author had actually written what I realized was a kind of spontaneous poem about the impact of reading the messages at What Needs to Be Said: how it was able to shift him from alone and despairing to feeling lifted and supported by community. They wrote, “This is the power of art.” For me as an artist, there is nothing more rewarding or humbling than that.
Credits: Research/studio assistants: Alexandra Olson and Piero Protti Glass vessel: Peter Zelle and Michael Boyd Metalsmithing: Kevin Groenke
Acknowledgements and thanks: WAM installation team: Reggie Spanier, Matt Englestad, Christopher Williams
