Video Duration 2:37

An interactive installation using existing rejection letters from my 30 plus year career and from an open call on social media where people can bring their rejection letter’s to pin in the booth. The installation takes place at a phone booth on the SE corner of 14th St and 7th Ave. The rejection letters that I have accumulated from my career are posted on the outside of the booth. I was on-site each day (Friday 3:30-8, Sat 12:00-6:00) to facilitate the exchange and pinning while handing out flyers encouraging the public to bring a rejection letter during the course of the festival and handing out Evidence of Being silicone wrist bands. Speakers are set up to play a series of recorded narrative sentences of typical rejection letters. Mass mailings of rejections in particular make one feel invisible. My intention is for the negative experience of rejection to be transformed into a shared experience, connecting people and to help us not to feel alone in this process.

Arlene Rush

Arlene Rush