The Waiting Room is a project that comments on our willingness to sit around and wait. Originally inspired while waiting in line to get into an art event in Colorado, the project is a mobile waiting room that can fit in the back of a small SUV or pickup truck and be deployed anywhere where people are waiting.
Complete with outdated magazines, bad art, plastic plants, stained rug, take a number machine, and a television blaring something nobody wants to watch, the waiting room offers a familiar, if uncomfortable, space. It begs the question, what are you waiting for?
This version of the project appeared at FIGMENT Boston 2016 and 2017.
For the How to Fix the World Fair held in Somerville’s Union Square on July 8, 2017, which called for art commenting on social problems, a special edition of the waiting room was commissioned. I sourced magazines documenting climate change’s visibility in the press going back decades and created a special video playlist of news clips about the issue from days gone by. I also added 200 pounds of ice to the carpet on a blistering summer day, creating a pleasantly cool place to sit and wait for the end of the world.