MySpace users will quickly recognize Pianas large-scale recreation of the MySpace template, which has a corresponding MySpace profile online. Colored squares outlined in bright blue hang from the walls in an 8x10 pattern just like profile pictures do in the Lawndales Friend Space on the Web site. Each square represents a friend from Lawndales profile, and Piana says he will be adding new tiles to the mix and shuffling old ones around weekly as Lawndale makes (but hopefully doesnt lose) friends.
Piana wasnt a MySpace user before creating the installation but is already a Top Friend on Lawndales profile. I think Im second, he says. Anyone familiar with the social networking site knows the importance of being a top friend. Piana is the first person weve ever heard of to go to such great lengths to gain top-friend status, except for the time we sent an I-thought-we-were-better-friends message to a certain someone, reminding them that friend No. 4 didnt give them a ride to the airport at 5 a.m. (Maybe were too sensitive.)
Befriend Lawndale now at www.myspace.com/lawndaleartcenter and see if a color representing you winds up on the wall from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays. Through January 5, 2008. 4912 Main Street. For information, call 713-528-5858 or visit www.lawndaleartcenter.org. Free.
Mondays-Saturdays. Starts: Nov. 16. Continues through Jan. 5, 2007