Splitting (The Banned Thesis Project)

The epic wood splitting project which was to be the thesis, but was refused by the administration.

In the spring of 2011 I began to organize my master’s thesis project around a performance involving my audience being invited to split wood with an ax. The piece was officially denied on April 15th by The Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Their concerns involved safety and litigation as they had been exposed recently to several small suits. I felt my priority was to avoid exposing the museum to potential closure, so I accepted their decision to deny my project. But recently I received a very special ax which traveled from Washington state, sent by the widow of a man who new me in my childhood. He sharpened the ax more than 17 years ago before his death. When I removed it from the leather sheath it sliced my thumb like a scalpel. The cut gave me the new drive to make the piece again. The story deeper now.