Blue Flowers has taken many forms. The original form was a three-day public engagement artwork at Yerba Buena Center as part of the “Disruption Clinic” in the exhibition Bay Area Now 7.

From curator Bean Gilsdorf: “To disrupt is to “break apart, throw into disorder, or interrupt the normal course or unity of” something. Lately, it’s used as a term to describe the action of new technologies that interrupt the conventional flow of goods and information to provide new ways of doing business; disruption is hailed as a contemporary boon to capitalism. Disruption is a series of interactive performances, exercises, consultations, and group experiences that explore the theme of disruption and its current connection to the tech industry. Collaborators include Whitney Lynn, Lauren Marie Taylor, Double Zero (Hannah Ireland and Annie Vought), Amanda Curreri, and Kristina Podesva.

Amanda Curreri explores territory between truth and fiction in Blue Flowers (September 7, 12PM to 5PM; September 10, 12PM to 5PM; and September 11, 12PM to 8PM). Daily participatory readings explore modern blauwe bloempjes—”bold faced lies” in Dutch—and invoke infamous characters such as Edward Snowden, asking participants to inhabit their words. Blue Flowers asks: who owns the true stories and who gets to play with the facts?”

The cards in the photos have gone on to transform into a pedagogical tool kit of sorts. I utilize these cards within lectures, guest classes, and in instances that can use a retooling of agency and assumptions.

Blue Flowers, video lecture, commissioned for Pablo Guardiola’s The Lecturers series. Runtime approximately 15min.

Thank you to the following people who read in exchange for blue flowers at YBCA, California College of the Arts, and Mills College:

Jennifer Leman, Guinet Stephane, Karine Chalhoub, Judith Mayer, Judy Schavrien, George Pfau, Hannah Ireland, Sibylle Schwarzwaelder, Claire Tremblay, Manny Russell, Doug Buster, Lacey Haslam, Nora D. Pagliarulo, Welly Fletcher, Heather Bennett, Gilbert Joseph Alexander, Dana Hemenway, Anne Colvin, Neil Mackintosh, Joshua Zabkin-Stere, Asha Baker, Robert Cunningham, Katya Min, Mark Jayson Quines, Aubree Mladenaic, Jennifer O’Keeffe, Bessma Khalaf, Marta Alcumbrac, Jayne Nilles, Mark Connelly, Michelle Ott, Jacqueline Norheim, Alexandra Bailliere, Joel Frank, Jing Wei Qiu, Nico Harriman, Eryka Fiedler, Leila Weefur, Holden Schultz, McKella Suter, Marléna Mendoza, Laurin Gutherie, Angela Hennessy, Laura Skillington, Rosa Novak, Tenzin Tsomo, E. Caroline Walters, Valentina Castro, Erik Scollon