Installation

Joel Tauber's installation, The Sharing Project, explores the meaning of sharing via 15 short films, 21 interviews, and a communal sculpture of shared objects.
Joel Tauber, The Sharing Project, Installation at the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum (Long Beach, CA, USA)

The installation features 15 short films plus 21 interviews. The foregrounded video, the one presented on the largest screen, tells the story of Happyville, as the camera slowly contemplates the site where the 50 Socialist Jews once lived. Zeke and Joel wonder aloud if some of the mysteries of sharing are hidden in the landscape. Determined to uncover them and “fix” or restore, metaphysically and poetically, the dream of Happyville; Zeke and Joel get to work with Zeke’s special tools: probing and digging, then “fixing” an ancient tractor as well as a decaying building.

Joel Tauber's installation, The Sharing Project, explores the meaning of sharing via 15 short films, 21 interviews, and a communal sculpture of shared objects.
Joel Tauber, The Sharing Project, Installation at the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum (Long Beach, CA, USA)

The other 14 short films operate as a kind of dialogue between Zeke and Joel. On 7 screens, the camera contemplates Zeke’s toys and Joel’s gear, as Joel talks about the complexities of sharing in a personal and interdisciplinary way. 7 other screens focus on Zeke and Joel grappling with the challenges of sharing.

Joel Tauber's installation, The Sharing Project, explores the meaning of sharing via 15 short films, 21 interviews, and a communal sculpture of shared objects.
Joel Tauber, The Sharing Project, Installation at the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum (Long Beach, CA, USA)

Tablet(s) feature 21 experts in different fields offering their thoughts.

Joel Tauber interviewed 21 experts in different fields about sharing for his art installation, The Sharing Project.
Joel Tauber, 21 interviews: Adrian Bardon, Professor of philosophy, Wake Forest University; Alex Rosenberg, R. Taylor Cole professor of philosophy, Duke University; Brenda Herman, Principal, Whitaker Elementary School; Christian Miller, A.C. Reid professor of philosophy, Wake Forest University; Colleen Lerner, Director and teacher, Temple Emanuel Preschool; Daisy Rodriguez, Director of childhood hunger programs, Second Harvest Food Bank Of Northwest North Carolina; David Coates, Worrell Chair in Anglo-American studies, Wake Forest University; David Graeber, Professor of anthropology, The London School of Economics; Derwin L. Montgomery, Executive director, Bethesda Center For The Homeless; Gene R. Nichol, Director of the Center of Poverty, Work & Opportunity, University of North Carolina School of Law; Geoffrey Sayre McCord, Morehead-Cain alumni distinguished professor of philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Hayes McNeill, Former Chair, Forsyth County Democratic Party; James Otteson, Executive director, BB&T Center for the Study of Capitalism, Wake Forest University School of Business; Jeffrey Faullin, Principal, Brunson Elementary School; Jennifer Knudson, Teacher (1 and 2 year olds), Temple Emanuel Preschool; Jessica Sommerville, Principal investigator, The Early Childhood Cognition Lab, University of Washington; Joseph Milner, Professor of education, Wake Forest University; Lynn Pritchard, Teacher (1 and 2 year olds), Temple Emanuel Preschool; Marcia Savin, Happyville descendent; Michele Gillespie, Dean of the College and Presidential endowed professor of southern history, Wake Forest University; Win-chiat Lee, Professor of philosophy, Wake Forest University

Audiences explore the videos interactively. They are invited to share some of their things and help arrange them in the gallery / museum. Then, at the end of the show, they are invited to take the shared objects and give them away to whomever they think will enjoy them.

The installation has been presented at the Adamski Gallery (Berlin, Germany, April 2 – May 6, 2015), the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum (Long Beach, CA, USA, June 13 – July 19, 2015), the Smith Gallery, Appalachian State University (Boone, NC, USA, September 1 – October 27, 2017), the Aiken County Historical Museum (Aiken, SC, USA, June 1 – July 29, 2018), and the Kunst(Zeug)Haus (Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland, February 28 – May 16, 2021).