The Refrain
2013 . Play
Debut at threewalls in March 2013
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Two North Face jackets hanging on two syringes with pirated Punk'd (left) and Butterfly Effect (right) DVD's in
their left pockets, Two 24/Cases of Nestle Water - one packaged as Poland Springs (Northeast United States)
and the other as Ice Mountain (Midwest United States) - for the canaries, orchids, and visitors
Two male Crested Gloster canaries and two meteorites in two canary cages on top of two cat trees - 51” and 52”
- with two Robin Ventura baseball cards - Topps 1990 Rookie card with the Chicago White Sox, and 2001 SP
Game Used Edition Authentic Fabric Jersey Card with the New York Mets and two Xfinity cable TV remotes, two
one inch stacks of Playboy and Penthouse Magazines underneath the 51” cat tree
Two Vizio HDTV monitors - 32” and 39” - on top of two orchids in two terra cotta pots - 12” and 16” - on top of two
Sterilite storage boxes containing a stereo system with one MP3 player looping one of two songs every 30
minutes - R Kelly’s “Love Letter” and Aaliyah’s “4 Page Letter" and a cable television converter box from Xfinity
allowing for two cable signals to play two 24 hour news networks simultaneously
Daily schedule and two hot dogs - one with ketchup, one with mustard - on a Melissa and Doug activity table
Two hot dogs - one with ketchup, one with mustard - on a Melissa and Doug activity table
Two hot dogs - one with ketchup, one with mustard - on a Melissa and Doug activity table
Daily schedule
Electric hot dog kettle with dual water windows
One FedEx poster tube scheduled to deliver to Dave Bing, the Mayor of Detroit, on April 20, 2013
One FedEx golf club tube scheduled to deliver to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the
constitutional monarch of Dubai, on April 20, 2013
One of two points on the wall at which the two types of sunscreen - Neutrogena Wet Skin Broad Spectrum
SPF 50 Sunscreen Spray and Hawaiian Tropic SPF 50 Sheer Touch Sunscreen Lotion - applied around the
perimieter of the room meet
Two male Crested Gloster canaries and two meteorites in two canary cages
Male Crested Gloster canary acknowledging his meteorite
Robin Ventura Topps 1990 Rookie card with the Chicago White Sox
Robin Ventura 2001 SP Game Used Edition Authentic Fabric Jersey Card with the New York Mets
North Face jacket hanging on a syringe with pirated Punk'd DVDs in the left pocket
North Face jacket hanging on a syringe with pirated Punk'd DVDs in the left pocket
North Face jacket hanging on a syringe with pirated Butterfly Effect DVDs in the left pocket
North Face jacket with pirated Butterfly Effect DVDs in the pockets hanging on a syringe
Two 24/Cases of Nestle Water - one packaged as Poland Springs (Northeast United States) and the other as
Ice Mountain (Midwest United States) - for the canaries, orchids, and visitors
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Aaliyah and R Kelly audio file
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Exhibition Trailer
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Sean: Thought about what you said to me the other day, about my painting. Stayed up half the night thinking about it. Something occurred to me… fell into a deep peaceful sleep, and haven’t thought about you since. Do you know what occurred to me?
Will: No.
Sean: You’re just a kid, you don’t have the faintest idea what you’re talkin’ about.
Will: Why thank you.
Sean: It’s all right. You’ve never been out of Boston.
Will: Nope.
Sean: So if I asked you about art, you’d probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life’s work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, right? But I’ll bet you can’t tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You’ve never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling; seen that. If I ask you about women, you’d probably give me a syllabus about your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times. But you can’t tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You’re a tough kid. And I’d ask you about war, you’d probably throw Shakespeare at me, right, “once more unto the breach dear friends.” But you’ve never been near one. You’ve never held your best friend’s head in your lap, watch him gasp his last breath looking to you for help. I’d ask you about love, you’d probably quote me a sonnet. But you’ve never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes, feeling like God put an angel on earth just for you. Who could rescue you from the depths of hell. And you wouldn’t know what it’s like to be her angel, to have that love for her, be there forever, through anything, through cancer. And you wouldn’t know about sleeping sitting up in the hospital room for two months, holding her hand, because the doctors could see in your eyes, that the terms “visiting hours” don’t apply to you. You don’t know about real loss, ’cause it only occurs when you’ve loved something more than you love yourself. And I doubt you’ve ever dared to love anybody that much. And look at you… I don’t see an intelligent, confident man… I see a cocky, scared shitless kid. But you’re a genius Will. No one denies that. No one could possibly understand the depths of you. But you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine, and you ripped my fucking life apart. You’re an orphan right?
[Will nods]
Sean: You think I know the first thing about how hard your life has been, how you feel, who you are, because I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you? Personally… I don’t give a shit about all that, because you know what, I can’t learn anything from you, I can’t read in some fuckin’ book. Unless you want to talk about you, who you are. Then I’m fascinated. I’m in. But you don’t want to do that do you sport? You’re terrified of what you might say. Your move, chief.
Speech from Good Will Hunting delivered at the opening of the town
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Press release image
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Potbelly's Sandwich Shop musician Abbi Rajasekhar performs covers of love songs on March 16, 2013
Potbelly's Sandwich Shop musician Chris Corsale performs covers of love songs on March 23, 2013 and April 20, 2013
Potbelly's Sandwich Shop musician Todd Kessler performs covers of love songs on April 13, 2013
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Jim Carry Retrospective - March 30, 2013
11:00 am - The Truman Show
12:43 pm -The Mask
2:00 pm - Liar Liar
3:26 pm - Me, Myself & Irene
5:22 pm - The Majestic
7:54 pm - Dumb and Dumber
9:41 pm - Man on the Moon
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Contextual online ads
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Script:
The Refrain: Medfield/Walpole
A Play by Andrew Norman Wilson
Dedicated to Susan and Richard Wilson
INTERIOR. NORM’S WORKSPACE, NEW YORK - 12/12/12, NIGHT
NORM
(alone in workspace, to no one, with style)
This town (read as: show) will deal with a “problem.” Thankfully, birds, trees, people, songs, packages, baseball cards, hot dogs, porn magazines, syringes, cat trees, storage boxes, cases of bottled water, and employment are available to look at each other, sing songs to each other, support each other, grow on each other, refresh each other, send packages to each other, trade each other, nourish each other, stimulate each other, inject each other, and hire each other.
INTERIOR. NORM’S WORKSPACE, NEW YORK - 12/12/12, NIGHT
Norm with laptop. He sends an initial planning email to the directors of threewalls in Chicago, with style.
INTERIOR. NORM’S TEMPORARY WORKSPACE, BERLIN - 2/14/13, DAY
Norm with laptop. He posts a call for interns on Simply Hired:
“DVD SALES, BIRD CARE, AND PLANT WATERING INTERN FOR ARTIST: An artist is looking for two interns for a town (read as: show) at threewalls gallery in Chicago from March 8 to April 20. For roughly 30 minutes every Saturday you will perform simple tasks in a brand new triclimate North Face jacket. These tasks include caring for two crested Gloster Canaries, bartering the sales of pirated Butterfly Effect or PUNK'd DVDs, and carefully watering two orchids so as to not damage the HDTV's they are serving as stands for.
No experience necessary. Twins are encouraged to apply. All profits from the pirated Butterfly Effect or PUNK'd DVDs you sell are yours to keep. Triclimate North Face jackets must be returned upon the closure of the town. The artist and threewalls directors agree to write letters of recommendation that say you developed any skills and experience required for future jobs you apply for.”
INTERIOR. TEMPORARY WORKSPACE, BERLIN - 2/16/13, NIGHT
Norm with laptop. He takes recreational drugs and purchases materials for the town with his credit card from WalMart and Target's online stores. He selects free shipping with site to store pickup in Chicago, Illinois and creates printable PDFs of the receipts.
INTERIOR. O’HARE AIRPORT, CHICAGO - 3/3/13, DAY
Don Perez, Champion Gloster Canary Breeder, picks up Norm at O’hare airport and drives him to his “House of Crests” in Glendale, Illinois. Upon arrival Norm begins shooting the promotional video that he agreed to make for the House of Crests (in addition to a deposit of $750 through Paypal) in exchange for a 6 week loan of two custom built cages and two crested Gloster Canaries to be included in the town at threewalls.
INTERIOR. THREEWALLS, CHICAGO - 3/5/13, DAY
Bare Interior. The contract Norm made for threewalls is finalized and brought to a notary by Norm and the threewalls directors. Norm's copy of the contract is framed and delivered to Norm’s workspace in New York to be hung by his intern, and threewalls’ copy is framed and mounted in the threewalls reception area.
Construction of the town begins. The public is invited via facebook to call the threewalls land line at +1 312-432-3972 during open hours to hear a report on construction progress. They are also informed that for the duration of the town, Simply Hired interns will offer pirated copies of The Butterfly Effect and Punk'd for barter. Simply Hired Interns are sized for their uniforms (triclimate North Face jackets).
INTERIOR. THREEWALLS, CHICAGO - 3/7/13, NIGHT
Two male crested Gloster canaries in two canary cages on top of two cat trees - 51” and 52” - with two Robin Ventura baseball cards - Topps 1990 Rookie card with the Chicago White Sox, and 2001 SP Game Used Edition Authentic Fabric Jersey Card with the New York Mets. (1) Two one inch stacks of Playboy and Penthouse Magazines underneath the 51” cat tree. Two Vizio Flat panel video monitors - 32” and 39” on top of two orchids in two terra cotta pots - 12” and 16.” Two cable signals and a cable television converter box from Xfinity. Two hot dogs - one with ketchup, one with mustard on a Melissa and Doug activity table. One hot dog kettle with dual water windows. Two 24/Cases of Nestle Water - one packaged as Poland Springs and the other as Ice Mountain - for the canaries, trees, and visitors. Two FedEx boxes - one poster tube and one golf club tube. One Sony stereo system inside two Sterilite storage boxes. One MP3 player looping one of two songs every 30 minutes - R Kelly’s “Love Letter” and Aaliyah’s “4 Page Letter.” One contract signed by Norm and the threewalls directors. Two triclimate North Face jackets with pirated Butterfly Effect or PUNK’d DVDs in the pockets hanging on two syringes. A couple.
The night before the town opens, a couple is supposed to make love in the town. But at 4 pm one member of the couple tells Norm that she has diarrhea and cannot participate. Norm goes to the saunas at the West Loop Athletic Club to think. After unsuccessfully trying to find other couples he is friends with, Norm asks someone he has always wanted to have sex with to make love in the town with him. She says yes and they meet at threewalls at 3 am. After finishing they arrange for the two empty FedEx boxes to be picked up at the closing ceremony for the town and shipped via FedEx - one to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the constitutional monarch of Dubai, and the other to Dave Bing, the mayor of Detroit. On the boxes, contents are listed as "nothing." All of this and everything else is done with style.
INTERIOR. THREEWALLS, CHICAGO - 3/8/13, NIGHT
The town opens and people arrive - some with dogs. Norm delivers a speech from the film Good Will Hunting.
INTERIOR. BAR, CHICAGO - 3/8/13, NIGHT
Norm, the threewalls directors and interns, and people who came to the town’s opening arrive at a bar for the karaoke afterparty.
INTERIOR. JOHN F. KENNEDY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, NEW YORK - 3/9/13, NIGHT
Norm returns to New York and grabs a slice.
INTERIOR. THREEWALLS, CHICAGO - 3/9/13 - 3/15/13, DAY
At 11 am, hourly and daily tasks commence for the threewalls interns. Two daily schedules are printed on Fed Ex canary colored card stock. One is placed in its display in the town, the other is placed in its display on the front of the building. Two fresh hot dogs from Target cafe are placed on their trays - one is dressed with ketchup, the other with mustard. A threewalls intern takes a picture of the hot dogs and posts it to the threewalls facebook page with the caption "TWO FRESH AND FREE HOT DOGS COME BY." The R Kelly and Aaliyah audio file is turned on and set to loop throughout the day. The flat panel video monitors are turned on. Each plays a different 24 hour news network at 50% volume. Each hour on the hour, the channel is changed on both monitors to different 24 hour news networks. All of this is done with style.
At 5 pm, both monitors are turned off. The looping audio file is stopped. The hot dog area is cleaned up and any leftover hot dog is placed in the tree outside of threewalls.
INTERIOR. THREEWALLS, CHICAGO - 3/12/13 - 3/15/13, DAY
Hourly and daily tasks are repeated.
INTERIOR. THREEWALLS, CHICAGO - 3/16/13, DAY
Hourly and daily tasks are repeated.
At 12 pm, a threewalls intern announces via facebook that at 2 pm a Potbelly’s Sandwich Shop musician will perform covers of love songs of his or her choosing and pirated DVDs of The Butterfly Effect and Punk'd will be available for barter through the Simply Hired interns while they clean the bird cages and water the orchids. At 2 pm these situations happen.
INTERIOR. THREEWALLS, CHICAGO - 3/19/13 - 3/22/13, DAY
Hourly and daily tasks are repeated.
INTERIOR. THREEWALLS, CHICAGO - 3/23/13, DAY
Hourly and daily tasks are repeated.
Weekly threewalls intern, Simply Hired intern and Potbelly’s Sandwich Shop musician tasks are repeated.
INTERIOR. THREEWALLS, CHICAGO - 3/26/13 - 3/29/13, DAY
Hourly and daily tasks are repeated.
INTERIOR. THREEWALLS, CHICAGO - 3/30/13, DAY
Typical town functions are suspended for the mid-town ceremony - a Jim Carrey retrospective.
At 11:00 am The Truman Show plays. At 12:43 pm The Mask plays. At 2:00 pm Liar Liar plays. At 3:26 pm Me, Myself & Irene plays. At 5:22 pm The Majestic plays. At 7:54 pm Dumb and Dumber plays. At 9:41 pm Man on the Moon plays.
INTERIOR. THREEWALLS, CHICAGO - 4/2/13 - 4/5/13, DAY
Hourly and daily tasks are repeated.
INTERIOR. THREEWALLS, CHICAGO - 4/6/13, DAY
Hourly and daily tasks are repeated.
Weekly threewalls intern, Simply Hired intern and Potbelly’s Sandwich Shop musician tasks are repeated.
INTERIOR. THREEWALLS, CHICAGO - 4/9/13 - 4/12/13, DAY
Hourly and daily tasks are repeated.
INTERIOR. THREEWALLS, CHICAGO - 4/13/13, DAY
Hourly and daily tasks are repeated.
Weekly threewalls intern, Simply Hired intern and Potbelly’s Sandwich Shop musician tasks are repeated.
INTERIOR. THREEWALLS, CHICAGO - 4/16/13 - 4/19/13, DAY
Hourly and daily tasks are repeated.
INTERIOR. THREEWALLS, CHICAGO - 4/20/13, DAY
Typical town functions are suspended for the closing ceremony of the town. The two empty FedEx boxes are picked up by a FedEx employee and shipped to the mayor of Detroit and the constitutional monarch of Dubai. The cable box is picked up by an Xfinity specialist. A threewalls intern prints out receipts for any items that will be returned, and those items are packed in their original boxes. Don Perez arrives and picks up his two Crested Gloster Canaries. A musician from Potbelly’s Sandwich Shop plays covers of love songs of his or her choosing. The Simply Hired interns remove their uniforms and offer deals on any leftover DVDs of Punk'd and The Butterfly Effect. The Simply Hired interns and threewalls directors and interns give speeches. Any hot dogs left in the tree outside are buried beneath the tree. All of this is done with style.
EXTERIOR. CHICAGO - 5/03/13
Norm and the threewalls directors return all returnable items to WalMart and Target. A picture of this act is taken and posted on the threewalls facebook page.
INTERIOR. NORM’S TEMPORARY WORKSPACE, UTRECHT, THE NETHERLANDS - 5/10/13, DAY
Norm begins the production of a book about the town and this play.
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Artist's Contact:
The Refrain: Medfield/Walpole Play Agreement
This Play Agreement ("AGREEMENT") is made by and between Andrew Norman Wilson ("NORM") and threewalls SOLO ("THREEWALLS"), located at 119 N Peoria #2C, Chicago IL, 60607, by which Norm and threewalls agree to put on a play (“PLAY”) about a town (“TOWN”), as more fully described in The Refrain: Medfield/Walpole Play Agreement attached hereto as Exhibit A and incorporated herein by reference, at threewalls’ project room space located at 119 N Peoria #2C on the following terms and conditions:
1. Defintions
As used in this Agreement, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
2. Style
All of this will be done with style.
3. This Contract
This framed contract will be hung in the reception area of threewalls before the opening of the town.
4. Period of Exhibition
5. Hourly, Daily, Weekly, and Town Ceremony Tasks
6. Costs Associated with the Exhibition
a. threewalls is responsible for the following costs and expenses associated with the Exhibition:
b. The Artist is responsible for the following costs and expenses associated with the Exhibition:
7. Norm’s Stipend
Norm’s stipend, payable to Norm for the sum of $300, covers his round trip flight between Chicago and New York. In addition, it covers any non-returnable items within the town such as orchids, terra cotta pots, and Robin Ventura baseball cards. The stipend will be paid, less any damages, unpaid invoices, materials costs (as per 6) incurred by Norm and beyond the agreed upon play costs to be bore by threewalls upon purchasing these non-returnable items.
8. Personnel
9. Pickup and return of items from Walmart and Target
Items purchased with site to store delivery through Walmart and Target are picked up by threewalls directors and/or interns before Norm’s arrival in Chicago. Returnable items are returned to Walmart and Target by Norm and the threewalls directors after the closure of the town. A picture of this act is taken and posted on the threewalls facebook page.
10. Indemnification
threewalls shall indemnify and hold Norm and his successors, licensees, and assigns harmless against all liability or loss (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) which they or any of them may suffer by reason of the breach of any of the terms, representations, and/or warranties of this Agreement.
11. Miscellaneous
This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois. The parties agree and consent that the jurisdiction and venue of all matters relating to this Agreement will be vested exclusively in the federal, state and local courts within the State of Illinois. This Agreement contains the entire understanding of the Parties relating to its subject matter. No change or modification of this Agreement will be binding upon either Party unless it is made by a written instrument. A waiver by either Party of any provision of this Agreement in any instance shall not be deemed to waive such provision for the future. All remedies, rights, undertakings, and obligations contained in this Agreement shall be cumulative and none of them shall be in limitation of any other remedy, right, undertaking, or obligation of either Party. Should any provision of this Agreement be determined to be void, it shall not affect the validity of any other provision of this Agreement.
threewalls SOLO Play Agreement
AGREED TO AND ACCEPTED:
Exhibitor
___________________________
Name
___________________________
Signature
_______________
Date
Norm
___________________________
Name
___________________________
Signature
_______________
Date
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Review and response