Whitney Aiken
The biggest most influential thing that has ever happened to me
presented under the mentorship of
Space 47
as part of
01SJ Adobe Global Youth Voices Project
and
The Second Biennial 01SJ Global Festival of Art on the Edge
with exhibition space provided by
Works/San José
This work, originally installed at TheTech’s New Venture Hall, was deemed too mature in subject matter by the museum and was removed from the exhibition. Works/San José has provided this space so that the work can be seen as part of 01SJ.
Whitney Aiken’s, The biggest most influential thing that has ever happened to me, features two life-size portraits side-by-side, one of Aiken and the other of her mother. A companion video piece features an intimate conversation between the two. During the spring of 2008, Aiken posted private journal entries on a public Internet blog every day for six weeks. The entries conveyed her six-year relationship to cancer, with sentiments ranging from resentment to empowerment.