WEEK #8: IN.TENTS.

Random Tent on the South Side of Lamar Dodd Art School

This is the second week in a row that a new flyer caught my eye while already in route to a poster destination. The Lamar Dodd School of Art was having a “POTtery Sale” that I decided to check out on Friday afternoon. While browsing the selection beautifully glazed coffee mugs and funky prints, I saw a posting on the lobby bulletin that piqued my curiosity.

“Come visit the newly erected tent on the south side of Lamar Dodd. Inside the tent you will find a BOX, you may leave something in the box, you may take something from the box. Preferably Both! Be it a good book, extra art supplies, a photograph, that shirt you dont want anymore, a confession , a flyer to a new show. Or maybe even a flyer for another tent…”

Normally, the sentence fragments and disregard for grammatical structure would have made me cringe, but on this particular flier it only added to the mysterious allure. I circled the perimeter of the art school twice and was about to call it quits when I spotted the tepee-style tent in the wooded area of a field. There was a boy with wearing a long black coat and top hat who was working to secure the ropes that held the base of the tent.. I can’t make this stuff up. 

When I approached, the young gentlemen looked up from his task and gave me a sort of confused, drawn out “helllllo…?” He seemed so baffled by my presence that for a second I thought maybe I had approached the wrong make-shift tepee.

I introduced myself and explained that I had seen the flier and that I wanted to check out his tent. After a brief, but awkward silence I asked if I could crawl in and he nodded his head without hesitance.

Inside, there sat a midsize cardboard box that contained the following: a guitar pick, a ziplock bag with a crumbled sugar cookie, a handful of plastic knives, a flier for the Lamar Dodd pottery sale, a piece of denim cloth with the words “Art+Social Change” printed on it, and six condoms.

All I had on me was my backpack and the piece of pottery I had just purchased inside, so I searched my bag for something to leave in the box. Reluctantly, I decided to leave a Hacky Sack that I had purchased is Johannesburg a couple of years ago in exchange for the denim cloth. Although I was overwhelmingly curious about the tent and it’s top-hatted creator, I decided just to thank him for the hospitality and leave him to his work.

To see more of Poster Child's adventures, visit http://posterchild1.wordpress.com/