By Diedra Krieger & Staci Lynn
The Self Care Mix unfolded during Diedra Krieger and Staci Lynn’s performance of Staci Lynn’s truism Egos Are Frail on the night of April 4th, 2012 at the opening reception for Stefan Sagemeister: The Happy Show. During the performance, Staci Lynn’s curiosity about the malleable nature of the ego and Diedra Krieger’s ongoing interrogation of self care culminated in a spontaneous collaboration. Diedra Krieger and Staci Lynn captured chance encounters with both unknown and familiar faces who generously shared their recipes for enacting self-care.
At another recent ICA event with Stefan Sagmeister, Diedra Krieger had the opportunity to ask for his thoughts on self care. Sagmeister described a yearly regimen of creating a list of things for which he rates himself on a weekly basis. Items included: spending an hour helping someone every day, being outgoing, and limiting smoking marijuana to once a month.
“Self Care Mix”
Performance & Audio Documentation
7 minutes, 34 seconds
Participants’ voices in order of occurrence:
1. John Transue and Laura Nejman – Extra Extra artists in the ICA exhibition First Among Equals. Background voices – Joe Lacina, Dominic Martin
2. Anthony Elms (amiable apple eater) – Associate Curator, ICA
3. Claudia Gould – Former Director, ICA and current Director, The Jewish Museum
4. Jessica Walsh – Designer and Partner, Sagmeister & Walsh
5. David Cohen – Associate Professor of Astronomy, Swarthmore College
6. Kenneth Goldsmith – Poet, Professor at the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing at the University of Pennsylvania, and Founder of UbuWeb.