March 20, 2006
Eh Team
Please Pardon Our Appearance

In Please Pardon Our Appearance, The Eh Team (Tania Lewis, Diana Martinez, Jackson McDade, and Ken Yip) gave a nod to the street and infrastructure maintenance taking place outside the gallery on Franklin Street. By literally extending the construction site indoors - drop tarps, caution tape, hard hats, power tools, lewd whistling, etc.-, the Eh Team erased the traditional barriers between street and gallery (or restaurant) while emphasizing how a similar form of "construction" informs art work (literally) and food presentation. This transitional space thus acted as a proscenium where the audience/actor/diners were urged to examine their environment as an absence of "place, " shifting focus from blue collar labor to social dynamics at such a site and - less we forget- the food itself. Here, “work break” was introduced as a form of cuisine and entertainment.

By the time the diners (Charlee Huffman and Paul Lucas) arrived, the crew had already been working overtime for half an hour and tempers were running sky high. Eh Team foreman Jackson McDade directed the well-dressed dinner guests to a couple of milk crates separated by a makeshift table, which was piled with an assortment of packaged donuts. Two large steaming “boxes of joe” were ready to go. McDade apologized for the unavoidable disruption but insisted they had to “finish” that night. The "constructionists" resumed work and blasted away with their power tools on an unsuspecting two by four and drywall remnant that were haplessly arranged on a couple of saw horses. Perhaps the long day caught up to them, for shortly after one by one workers began taking an endless series of breaks which prompted the foreman to bellow “What?! Are you guys gonna fuck the dog all night?!” Much complaining could also be heard about the “new guy” who never did quite finish his break. In the end, it was left to McDade to go and get the tamale cart. The guests finally got their entrée.