By Wendy
It’s T minus two hours until the opening event for “Lines of Attack: Conflicts in Caricature.” Upstairs at the Nasher Museum, you can hear the clickety-clack of Marianne Wardle’s 35-year-old Kenmore sewing machine.
She is very calm, as always, under the circumstances.
Marianne is fixing the black skirt for the Free Speech Booth, a new video kiosk set up outside the gallery. This afternoon the skirt fell off and was found in a heap on the floor. The iron-on Velcro had failed.
It’s taken almost the entire museum to get the Free Speech Booth up and running.
The project started when Museum Director Kim Rorschach suggested that we come up with a way for visitors to give personal reactions to the exhibition, which is filled with provocative political cartoons.
Juline found two real voting booths at the Scrap Exchange. Ken rigged the kiosk software. Patrick cut the Plexiglas and secured the voting booth to the wall. Alan made the signage. Duke students made sample videos at the booth. Kathy and I made the skirt.
Now we’re excited to watch the videos that visitors record.
IMAGE: Marianne gamely sews the skirt. Photo by Wendy Hower Livingston.
