Today was my second time going to SOFA, a big ol' art show in Chicago at Navy Pier. Sculptures as far as the eye can see, mainly in glass but also in wood, clay, plastic, random stuff...and jewelry. Oh man. The jewelry. There are so many sparkly things made in so many ways, I don't even know.
Although I usually do these things with Jiaqi and Terumi, I ended up splitting off from therm (one of Terumi's friends is with us this weekend). For the bus ride there, it was me, my sophomore friends Becca and Sarah, and Don, a guy my age with three thousand majors and also former peer adviser like me. Upon arrival, Don and I took off and spent two hours together, picking up all the things and holding our own in discussions to artists and dealers.
For the most part, art dealers don't really care what some college kids in t-shirts and hoodies think. It's just that when you get caught taking pictures or in whispers of "I can make that" "so can I" "let's trade" "okay", you have to be quick on your feet in response. Great practice.
There WAS a guy who genuinely didn't care that we weren't there to buy his stuff. I complimented him on the series collection because of it's name: The Cool Collection. Got a kick out of that. They were these awesome rings that were made of cracked graphite that basically covered a whole segment of your finger. Worth thousands of dollars and I got to manhandle it.
After lunch, Don and I banded with Sarah and Becca and did a second round of the floor. This time, we decided to speak in British accents. This went well up until a dealer said hi to us and asked where we were from, forcing us to break character and fess up...but she liked (and was convinced by) the act, so we made a cover story: We were foreign exchange students from the London Institute of Art and Design (LIAD) doing a study abroad trip to NIU because it is located in the heartland of America and is a good representation of midwest culture. And corn. 'cause apparently there isn't corn where we were from.
So for another two hours, we talked in British accents. The whole time. I don't think there was a minute where we weren't spouting dialogue of some sort. Whether looking at pieces or in line for the bathroom, we kept up the British thing and held conversations with a few people. Sarah got the furthest with the story, telling some random professor from some random art school that she was a foreign exchange student studying art education (her actual major). And the professor thought that was great.
It's not that I want to deceive people...it's just that talking in accents is so much fun, so why not mess with people who genuinely don't know who you are?
