Your worries will become part of an audio file with everyone else’s to be included in an electroacoustic piñata. The piñata will continuously murmur an inaudible stream of these recordings which become audible momentarily only when hit. The Worries Bash installation will be at Proof Gallery May 5– June 16 June 15, 2018. There will be an ArtWeek walk-through on Saturday, May 5th from 4–5pm and a soft opening from 5–7pm. The show will conclude with the main event: this will be a ceremonial bashing of the sculptures and release of the worries from 7–9pm on Friday, June 15th 2018 (flyer).

Worrisome shifts in the USA’s politics triggered our interest in collecting worries. Leaders are drawing the culture inward while souring relationships with longstanding allies. The emotionalization of events by the media is engendering worries that swirl inside us, trapping us in manufactured anxieties. We have been asking people in our communities what they are worried about and find they have a plethora of concerns at the ready. This project is an opportunity to collect various types of worries and consider similarities in emotional cycles across continents. There are many social situations where it is unacceptable to express these thoughts and emotions, yet we all have them. This exhibition will provide an audio portrait of hundreds of recorded worries emanating from fragile paper mache piñatas. Attendees will be able to bring different worries into focus via their physical interactions with these sculptures. Can the destruction of these worry vessels create space for clarity?

The first worries bash took place at Agva-CIAT in Berlin in August 2017. Help us to share and bear the brunt of our worries collectively by recording your worries here and joining us at Proof Gallery for a worries bash in Boston.