fayettevillearts.org

BY DUSTIN TRACY Northwest Arkansas Times

Kelsey Felthousen has been waking up to people walking through her bedroom and kitchen lately.

The University of Arkansas Master of Fine Arts candidate literally has the sun shining on her when she sits on her couch, and she often has the wind blowing her tablecloth off even though no windows are open.

Felthousen made the decision to turn her house inside out for her thesis exhibition. She sleeps, eats and lives on the UA Union Mall with no walls or ceilings around her bedroom, living room, kitchen or bathroom. She said the project, “myspace,” was meant to show people how Internet social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and YouTube are allowing people to give away the last remnants of privacy.

“You’re not just telling your friends an inside story; you’re telling the world,” she said.

So Felthousen set out to create a public work that would symbolize the country’s discarding of intimacy.

“All Americans have something they call home,” she said. “I took my home and its four major areas and I reversed the idea.”

She moved in on Sunday and has slept there every night. The house has four walls on the inside; the space they create contains a small garden.

Felthousen said most of the stuff is hers, though she bought some of it off Web sites like Craigslist and eBay. The UA also contributed some of its surplus to the project, including the old television she has in the bedroom. The display has electricity but no plumbing. Felthousen uses the bathroom in the Arkansas Union and the shower in the HPER building. As for the rest of her day, she said she tries to act pretty normal.

“I do all the normal things I do at home; I just do them publicly,” she said.

People who walk past the project tend to be confused. Felthousen said that if she’s not at the house, people walk in and look around. Some write on her white dry-erase board. When she is present, she said, most people stay behind the tape that marks the edges of the house.

The visitors also have a lot of questions.

Felthousen said she has lines of people around her late at night while she’s watching television in her bed. Once the late-nighters clear out she might get a couple hours of sleep before the early-morning people start showing up.

“If I’m in bed and I stir a little bit or show that I’m slightly awake, the questions start,” she said.

Most want to know what she’s doing and whether she’s crazy, but sometimes the message of the project gets out.

“I was sitting on my couch doing a crossword puzzle one afternoon and there was a guy, just an average student, standing there watching. He looked right at me and said, ‘I get it,’” she said.

Felthousen has not had any problems with stealing or vandalism, though the wind did tear the door off her dresser and she’s pretty sure a squirrel or some other animal stole her box of orange Tic Tacs. For the most part the surrounding UA community has responded positively and respectfully. She said one man who was taking photos of the house while she was in class actually chased down and refolded a towel that the wind had blown of its rack.

The situation does lead to some strange encounters. Felthousen said one day she was talking to a few college students from Missouri. They were coming back from a camping trip and decided to spend a day in Fayetteville. The men disclosed that they had nowhere to stay for the night, so Felthousen offered her couch and living room floor.

“They crashed here in their sleeping bags,” she said.

The project has given Felthousen a little introspection.

“I always considered myself a pretty open person, but I never realized just how much I appreciated that quiet time at my house,” she said.

The house is under video surveillance all the time. People can watch Felthousen on a television set up in the fine arts building gallery. They can also keep track of her through a webcam on the UA Web site, www.uark.edu.

The project will last until April 5. Felthousen said she will have a yard sale from 7-10 a.m. that day. Then she’ll tear down the walls.

There will be an opening reception from 5-7 p.m. Friday on the Union Mall and the UA Fine Arts Center.

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