A Prayer, A Wish, A Spell for Those You Carry: A Participatory Performance by Danielle C. Wyckoff

A cathartic and powerful participatory performance, Wyckoff invites visitors to co-create a clay vessel – a reliquary of love and hope – while describing to the artist a person you love. This vessel will be filled with symbolic materials: tokens for the wishes, prayers, and spells for the one you love. Next, you’ll fill out a card addressed to the one(s) you carry and place it on a shelf to be exhibited throughout the week. Those who participated may claim the object from the installation by Sunday, November 10^th.

Wyckoff describes the performance as ​“acknowledging the power of language and specific movements to set intentions. Furthermore, the work relies on strangers opening up to each other, sharing intimate moments as well as opportunities for deep listening. My hope is that through this participatory performance, participants may find some peace, hope, or release. And as an over-arching theme in my work, this piece encourages us to find connection despite our apparent differences through the common state of loving and all that love entails.”

This work is derived from an earlier participatory piece created in collaboration with Courtney Kessel (2017).

This performance is free and available to all. Walk-ins are welcome, RSVPs are encouraged.

RSVP for the Tuesday, November 5^th performance.

RSVP for the Thursday, November 7^th performance. -DUE TO INTENSIVE DEMAND, AS OF OCTOBER 30TH RSVPs FOR NOVEMBER 7TH ARE CLOSED. Walk-in visitors are welcome to come and enjoy Jasmine Jelsma’s sound bath in the auditorium.

On Thursday, November 7^th, Wyckoff will be joined by healer Jasmine Jelsma for an evening of art, community, and healing. Jelsma will conduct a sound bath in the auditorium to help release tension and provide a space for spiritual restoration.

Originally from the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, Danielle C. Wyckoff currently lives and works in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is an artist and an educator, teaching at Kendall College of Art and Design. Considering the human capacity to love and how we speak about those loves, Wyckoff’s work explores the myriad ways in which we express and understand such. She has exhibited or performed across the United States, in Chile, Denmark, China, and Canada. When possible, she and her partner and their child visit the oceanic Lake Michigan.