A 6-month installation of My Sadness Goes On and On.
An image of a cactus is installed on the right and a text panel on the left invites viewers to submit the saddest song they know by email or text. Speakers attached to the glass window play the Sad Song collection 24 hours a day forpedestrians. A collaborative Sad Song sing-a-long event will be held at the closing of the project.
Mark Menjivar’s X MARKS THE ART: “Light + Technology” installation was completed this September. He has created a unique space of connectivity conveyed through a participatory audio and visual experience installed in a storefront at 122 East Houston Street.
The story begins a few years ago, while he was going through a particularly difficult time in his life, he came across a cactus that had died in a hard freeze. There was an instant connection to sadness for him. When he returned the next day to photograph it, the owner was standing over the cactus with a machete to chop it down. The phrase “my sadness goes on and on” popped into his head and he decided to invite people to submit the saddest song they knew to an on-going collection.
His piece offers the widely accepted notion that listening to sad songs helps us to move through our emotion by creating connection.
Funding for this project was provided by Public Art San Antonio. X Marks the Art aims to activate underutilized and vacant downtown properties by introducing new creative, dynamic, visually aesthetic installations and happenings downtown.