Woodpecker 2016
2009
2009
performance
This mock street canvas performance was created in deliberate misguided homage to the Chinese organization, the Green Woodpecker Association--an anti-spitting campaign formed during preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
In the final weeks leading up to the deciding vote for host city of 2016 Olympic Games, canvassers dressed in white polos (embroidered, oddly, with a spitting bird logo) took to the streets of Chicago to educate citizens about a daring new campaign, Woodpecker 2016. The Woodpecker 2016 organization, or "W16," promoted a pro-Olympic, pro-spitting platform. Just as not spitting served as a marker of a civilized, western-appropriate China, Woodpecker 2016 promotion of spitting was intended as a metaphor of Chicago's "open-minded acceptance of cultural and etiquette differences."
Armed with a clipboard of informational literature, a petition, and a large "Chinese"-style bowl, enthusiastic canvassers took to the streets of Chicago to raise awareness and drum up support for the important W16 agenda. These street actions targeted proposed sites of the Olympic venues, including Buckingham Fountain, Washington Park, and Douglas Park. Talking points included a brief description of the original Chinese project and information about how the W16 campaign would give Chicago the upper hand to win the bid for the 2016 Games. W16 sympathizers were asked to show their support in a gesture of global goodwill by leaving a "donation" of spit in the bowl--thereby demonstrating their willingness to "welcome future Olympics spectators from the world's spitting nations."
This mock street canvas performance was created in deliberate misguided homage to the Chinese organization, the Green Woodpecker Association--an anti-spitting campaign formed during preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
In the final weeks leading up to the deciding vote for host city of 2016 Olympic Games, canvassers dressed in white polos (embroidered, oddly, with a spitting bird logo) took to the streets of Chicago to educate citizens about a daring new campaign, Woodpecker 2016. The Woodpecker 2016 organization, or "W16," promoted a pro-Olympic, pro-spitting platform. Just as not spitting served as a marker of a civilized, western-appropriate China, Woodpecker 2016 promotion of spitting was intended as a metaphor of Chicago's "open-minded acceptance of cultural and etiquette differences."
Armed with a clipboard of informational literature, a petition, and a large "Chinese"-style bowl, enthusiastic canvassers took to the streets of Chicago to raise awareness and drum up support for the important W16 agenda. These street actions targeted proposed sites of the Olympic venues, including Buckingham Fountain, Washington Park, and Douglas Park. Talking points included a brief description of the original Chinese project and information about how the W16 campaign would give Chicago the upper hand to win the bid for the 2016 Games. W16 sympathizers were asked to show their support in a gesture of global goodwill by leaving a "donation" of spit in the bowl--thereby demonstrating their willingness to "welcome future Olympics spectators from the world's spitting nations."
