How One Man’s 1970s Childhood Became A Work Of Immersive Art
A visitor examines personal artifacts in the interactive exhibit “Memory in a Void,” filled with Joe Dulude II’s childhood memories. Photo credit of Matthew Cavanaugh
A recent immersive exhibit in Turners Falls, Massachusetts, included the option to eat potato chips and watch TV — and it was all part of the art.
Artist Joe Dulude II recreated his childhood living room for all to see — and touch, and feel — in the back room of a store.
“These are all the things I had from the ’70s — like my Fisher-Price record player,” Dulude said. “I used to listen to this Little Golden Book, ‘Tawny Scrawny Lion.'”
The record player was among a dozen or so items viewers were invited to play, and listen to, and to pick up in Dulude’s exhibit, “Memory in a Void” — dolls, eight-track tapes and a player, a model space ship he built with his father, and a GAF View-Master.
A cassette player and some old tapes were also on a bookshelf. When they were kids, Dulude and his brother used to interview each other and impersonate others.