Splinter Fairy #1 (2017)

Installation as part of the Institute of What's Possible Today, an exhibition presented at Institut für Alles Mögliche, Berlin, Germany

My collaborators and I were invited to present a project at the Institut für Alles Mögliche in Berlin, so we decided to create an exhibition from start to finish in one day. We started by deciding that we would split into groups to search around the neighborhood for things we could feature in the exhibition. We had a single question in mind, "What is the deepest possible connection we can make with this neighborhood in a single day?"

I went out on my own, and I started by searching for the highest point in the neighborhood. I figured if I could get to the highest point, I'd be able to see something interesting from there. I ended up wandering into a coffee shop where I found a map of Berlin that I used to make a hat. I needed a ribbon for that hat, so it would stay on my head, and I walked into a stationary store. In the store, a woman commented on my dress. She said she used to have the same dress, but she gave it away. We started talking. It turned out that she was there buying Pokemon cards for her son who had recently gotten a splinter. Apparently in Berlin there is a tradition, similar to the tooth fairy, where children put their splinters beneath their bed under a bowl. Over night the Splinter Fairy comes and replaces the splinter with a small gift. Laura was the splinter fairy.

We ended up walking together for quite awhile through the neighborhood, and I asked if she thought her son would like a pinata shaped like his favorite Pokemon, Haunter. She thought he would like that, so I made a promise that I would make a pinata for him filled with advice for a six year old, and we could open it at the one-day exhibition opening later that night. She agreed, and she brought her son along with his friend. They didn't expect a thing, and when her son saw the Pokemon pinata, he was very, very happy. I even made a special stick for him to use for hitting it.

Anyway, now I'm thinking of myself as a splinter fairy, and maybe I'll do future performances as this splinter fairy who sort of makes special things appear for people who don't expect it.