Rice Dream

I wasn't expecting Stan's Cafe's Of All The People In the World: USA and its mounds of rice to be so moving. I missed the performance two years ago in Portland as part of PICA's Time-Based Art Festival and was glad for the opportunity to witness the project I had heard so much about. Happily I made my way down to the World Financial Center on a crisp New York January day. I arrived almost an hour early (take note gallery hours for this project are from noon until 6 pm, Wednesday through Sunday) and actually considered leaving despite all my effort. Thankfully I was able to find enough distractions until the doors opened and it was definitely worth the wait.

I found the expected mounds of rice, each grain representing one person, neatly piled on sheets of white paper, but to my surprise and delight these UK-based artists have a sense of humor as well as gravity. Topics included money, natural disasters and security, among others. Near the middle of the project a massive mound of rice representing those people displaced by flooding in India in one year, right next to a comparatively diminutive mound of rice representing those people displaced by hurricane Katrina. In another section the amount of millionaires, gigantic, appears to equal refugees. Far off in another corner, hiding behind a pillar, a small pile of rice representing FBI secret agents was both cleverly placed and political, just blocks away from the site of the former World Trade Center Twin Towers. Reading these mounds we see the number of terrorism suspects take a big leap from 2003 to 2006 next to a small pile of rice representing the people who perished on September 11, 2001.

My mind began racing and I'll admit my eyes a little watery as took in all these persuasive numbers. I began to imagine trading millionaires with refugees. Clearly the underlying message is one of global awareness and consideration. Let's find a solution for New Orleans without forgetting that India is dealing with this too, annually, and on a scale that makes it hard not to be humble. Forgive my optimism, but perhaps we (America) all need to give something up in this age of the global economy in order to balance the scales (pun intended) and I can only imagine what we could gain in return.

Don't miss Stan's Cafe Of All The People In The World: USA
World Financial Center, Courtyard Gallery
Open until January 20, 2008 : 12 - 6 pm, closed Monday and Tuesday
Free Admission