OINGO (Oranges in Non Governmental Organizations) or ODONG (Oranges dans Organisms Non Governmenteaux)

This project looks to the Ghetto Biennale in Port-Au-Prince as a counter exhibition, disrupting conventional art scene exclusions, as well as a bold conversion of global power systems, centers of art production, and cultural transmission. As U.S. artists proposing to travel to Port-au-Prince, Haiti to participate in the Ghetto Biennale it is important to us to be part of a critical dialogue about globalism. There are approximately 10,000 NGO’s operating in Haiti, all backed by the interests and finances of the US, France and Canada. Many of these NGOs are immersed in agricultural production. The resulting farms are part and parcel of the global industry of economic assistance. We are interested in utilizing tangerines and oranges from farms that have become part of the Haitian agricultural landscape through the presence of US funded NGO’s. For the duration of the Biennale we will appear as OINGO(oranges in non-governmental organizations) or ODONG (oranges dans des organismes non gouvernementaux) as a parody of an NGO, we will perform the systematic contradictions and dysfunctions of Non Governmental Organizations. In preparation for the Biennale we will purchase oranges and tangerines in the local markets. We will tattoo images on the citrus fruit of other artwork shown in the Biennale, plus Creole pigs, rice and bags of sugar and Contreau bottles. As the Biennale begins we will set up altars (organized piles of tattooed fruit) wherever most feasible depending on the constraints of the Biennale but preferably in public highly trafficked areas of Port-au-Prince. During the Biennale we will operate as a uniformed team, one of us continuing to tattoo images on the citrus and assemble altars, while the other gives away the tattooed fruit and interacts with passers by via our translator and attempts to communicate using an English/Kreyol dictionary.

This is an excerpt from the proposed and accepted project that Crow Cianciola and I collaboratively crafted to perform at the Ghetto Biennale in Port-Au-Prince Haiti. Due to various unforseen restrictions I was unable to make the trip and thus the project that took place was changed in form. I remain invested in the potential of the collaborative process and the proposal itself.