The project Casual Conversations is based on a series of public dialogues, interactions, and conversations. By bringing contemporary art out of the gallery and into the community, we create a kind of art/research laboratory in the public realm. Every event targets some issue - whether personal or communal - and attempts to elicit a reaction that will eventually become a brushstroke in a community portrait.

As Grant H. Kester noted in his book Conversation Pieces "the concept of a dialogical art practice is derived from the Russian literary theorist Michael Bakhtin, who argued that the work of art can be viewed as a kind of conversation - a locus of differing meanings, interpretations, and points of view." Casual Conversations exemplifies this definition of art by documenting the spontaneity of daily conversations and public interactions. By creating these social portraits, the project records a quickly shifting experience as it moves from moment to moment, from present to past.

To date we have conducted following public "interactions":

A Painting For A Family Dinner
Bat Yam, Tel Aviv, Israel
April 7-12, 2008
For this project, we put an ad in the local Bat Yam newspaper offering a painting made by us in exchange for an invitation to a family dinner. This project was produced for Moby Hosting exhibition and supported by the Bat Yam Museum, Israel.
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American Dream
The Jewish Museum, NY
March 16-20, 2008
We asked staff and visitors of The Jewish Museum to share their American dream. This project was a part of the Off The Wall: Artists At Work exhibition at The Jewish Museum, NY, March 16-20, 2008.
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Let's Drink. Let's Talk. Free.
Discount Liquors & Wines, Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, NY
August 18, 2007
We invited shoppers and passersby to drink with us, talk, share a story, or make a toast.
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American Dream
St. Petersburg bookstore, Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, NY
July 27, 2007 / December 28, 2007
We asked shoppers in this popular Russian-language bookstore to share their American Dream with us by writing or drawing it with a magic marker on a "thought bubble".
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Identity
Boardwalk, Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, NY
July 7, 2007
In the early morning on a sunny July weekend, we asked beachgoers to define their identity.
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Casual Conversations is supported by the Six Points Fellowship and the Puffin Foundation.