6/6/2023 0 Comments Amazing busboyThe decision to do this project in Cuba was inspired by the many people from Mexico, Central America, and South America that I had worked with in my life. At the time, I was 24 years old and still had a lot of learning and growing to do: Below is what I wrote about the experience right after I completed the project in 2000. I didn’t officially achieve my “goal” but the 19 hours that I spent with the community at that restaurant changed my life forever. At the time there were 21 Cuban Pesos in 1 U.S. Over the course of two days, I worked for about 19 hours and earned 19 pesos. My goal was to earn one United States Dollar, which was the preferred form of currency used by Cubans at the time. For my project, I convinced a local family owned restaurant to let me work for them for a couple of nights as a busboy. My second body of work – The Service Series– officially began in November 2000 when Tony Labat brought a group of students to Cuba to participate in the Havana Biennial Art Fair. Performing my project Lunch in my Busboy Uniform, 2001 I was usually a silent, sculptural element in those installations, interventions, or performances whose job was to perform a task. I began to either perform or interact with people postured as a service person, busboy, or attendant. However, my employment and research as a busboy slowly started to infiltrate my art pieces. My first body of work dealt with furniture and cabinets and can be seen in my Cabinet Maker Series. While in San Francisco, I was going to school full time during the day so I was unable to find a cabinet shop that would allow me to work nights. Prior to my arrival in San Francisco, I had been working as a cabinetmaker in a small furniture factory in Boston for three years. When I arrived in San Francisco in the fall of 1999 I took a job in a fine dining restaurant as a busboy.
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