The artist
Complaining gets a bad rap. You ask someone how they are and they often reply, “no complaints!” —I hate this. Because, please, tell me of that which causes you to beat at your chest, of what causes you pain.
To complain, from the latin, means:
com—together plangere—to strike and beat at the breast in extreme grief, bewail
In the Old French complainte means a plaintive poem—a poem of grief.
You have complaints, you have bewailing sorrows that need an ear and a presence. Together we write a plaintive poem. Together.
The Complaint Department is an art installation by Jacqueline Viola—both in physical space and the virtual. We belong to one another and as such, all our tender, obnoxious, daring, sensitive, and grieving complaints need a home in one another. The Complaint Department is the space of call and response.
I hear you calling, I respond. I am calling to you, & by mercy—you respond.
We need one another.
The Complaint Department is brought to you by Jacqueline Viola and Auric Gallery in Colorado Springs, CO.
For the month of December The Complaint Department will be physically located at Auric Gallery and participants are invited to both write in at the Complaint Department desk and also to respond to complaints—creating, in effect, an operational and communal HR department led by all who participate. A community of care. A community of call and response.