100 Walkers, West Hollywood is a performance that has been commissioned by the City of West Hollywood as part of its 30th anniversary celebration. One hundred performers, each dressed in a dark jacket and bowler hat and wearing a sandwich board (with a unique image on both front and back) will walk pre-determined routes through the city.
The action will begin with all one hundred walkers forming a grid. Slowly the walkers will disperse, fanning out in all directions, traversing the entire city of West Hollywood. (The intention is to use every street in the city).
The sandwich boards draw on various lexica, both visual and verbal, that include street calls, aphorisms, “sounds” from comic books, painted hand gestures, imagery from children’s books, photographs of the elemental (water, earth, and sky), and a wide variety of portraits. Subverting a form traditionally associated with advertising (whether for a product or an ideology), the sandwich boards here have nothing to sell. Instead they invite multiple associations and connections.
Collectively, the walkers form an unusual army of incongruities and juxtapositions, which inject humor, commentary, distortion, as well as glimpses of parallel moments in space and time. Individually, each walker will capture the attention of most passersby (particularly those who are driving) for just a blink, enough to interrupt daily life and shift the viewer’s awareness of their world.
In addition to the event itself, a film documenting all aspects of the performance (including preparatory work, discussions with the artist, performers and the general public) will be also produced.
Several iterations of this piece (for anywhere from one to twenty-five walkers) have already been performed in multiple locations (Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Death Valley, Wendover Air Force Base and most recently in Charlottesville, Virginia).
Included here is documentation from several of these performances as well as scale models of 100 Walkers, West Hollywood (in progress) and the most recent iteration (performed in October 2013) 25 Walkers, Charlottesville.
Further information and work by Richard Kraft can be found at:
http://www.richardkraft.net.
Volunteer performers and support staff are now being recruited for 100 Walkers, West Hollywood. Please contact Richard Kraft at: 100walkers@gmail.com.
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