“My father used to drive a FUNMOBILE. It was a large blue van with block letters that would ramble among neighborhood cul-de-sacs, opening up the side doors to set up games. This is who I have become…a creator of scenarios and instigator of play. I bring the car that delivers unanticipated services and the tent that sells unexpected goods
My goal is to prompt viewers into being involved, playing or laughing by being sincerely engaged. I use everything from food to printed materials, edibles, and services, as well as imagination, education and humor in an attempt to make a community wherever I go. I want art to take me out of the studio and into the streets, immersing and collaborating in service industry, science, local food or ecology.
Sometimes, I want to turn my art-making into a business. I want to have an excuse to approach all the occupations that my father told me I could have when I was twelve years old. So I’ve become, in the past, a taxi driver, a postmaster, a merchant, a baker, a gardener; each time learning skills applicable to life while being able to change the understood rules of the profession, tricking participants into rethinking their understandings of each of these roles.”
– Carissa Carman