Jennifer Dalton

How Much Do I Owe You

Bring in the Reality

Conceptual artist Jennifer Dalton compiles and presents a variety of data, from rigid market statistics to esoteric measurements of emotion and morality. In her installation Reckoning (2012), originally commissioned for the NLE exhibition How Much Do I Owe You?, Dalton engages with the later. Viewers are asked to fill out a survey that reflects on their personal relationship to surplus and debt, as it relates to a set of artist-designated demographics and contexts. Upon filling out the survey, respondents are rewarded with buttons that label them as “giver” or “receiver.” The installation is accompanied by two hand-drawn graphics, created from the data collected during How Much Do I Owe You?, Following the close of Bring in the Reality, Dalton will conduct another round of data analysis and create new accompanying visual graphics.

This interactive installation invites us to consider issues of “Surplus” and “Debt” in our own lives and experiences. The pads detail many ways that each of can classify ourselves and the many areas of interaction from country to family. Consider situations where you feel you have given more than you have received back or where you have received more than you have given and fill out the appropriate sheet and place in either “Surplus” or “Debt.” In exchange for your participation you are invited to take one of the buttons located under your entry box. Multiple surveys can be filled out reflecting different aspects of one’s life.

Throughout the duration of the exhibition, Dalton will be reading and assessing the survey responses and presenting the aggregate results in small chart and graph drawings hung in the frames on the wall, thus creating a visible indicator of interpersonal exchange.