LIFE’S LITTLE SUCKERS Rukmini Poddar
Life’s Little Suckers: The Project + The Process
LIFE SUCKS SOMETIMES. we think the best thing to do is to make fun of it.
What’s life’s biggest question?
Why do people die?
Why can’t I be happy all the time?
Is YOLO really true?
Why is graduation the cause of so many existential questions?
02
BFA 2015 Selected Works Process Book | 03
Life’s Little Suckers: The Project + The Process
LIFE IS BITTER. LIFE IS SWEET. LIFE IS SOUR. LIFE IS CHEW Y. it can get stuck in your teeth when you least suspect.
When overwhelmed with the flavours of life, it’s best to seek guidance in other experienced suckers. It also helps to enjoy a sucker while you contemplate the suckyness of life.
04
BFA 2015 Selected Works Process Book | 05
Life’s Little Suckers: The Project + The Process
material exploration, printed patterns on wax paper
SO WHAT’S LIFE’S LITTLE SUCKERS ABOUT ANY WAYS? Life’s Little Suckers is lolipop-themed activity set that delivers the hard questions of life in the most digestible (pun intended) way.
sketching ideas for the logo of Life’s Little Suckers
We aren’t just a bunch of complainers. In the end of the day, we hope to get people comfortable with thinking and talking about the larger pictures of life.
06
BFA 2015 Selected Works Process Book | 07
Life’s Little Suckers: The Project + The Process
MEET JANE DOE. SHE’S OUR PERFECT CUSTOMER. Jane grew up as a typical American teenager. Her biggest worries have been final exams, her boy friend, and having enough cof fee to get through the morning.
However, as graduation approaches Jane finds her self thinking about things other than herself.
sometimes you have to step back and laugh. a lot.
I guess life isn’t always about tackling the next exam or job oppor tunity.
Jane wants to talk about some of these things with her friends. She wants to ponder these thoughts more. What to do next?
Jane’s uncle gif ts her with a box of Life’s Little
STEP 1: BECOME A SUCKER.
Suckers. It makes a quirky and funny gif t. But
you’re one step closer to embracing your inner sucker
wait -there’s more. It encourages her to create dialogue about life’s bigger questions. Per fect.
This is a good thing. This means you’re starting to become comfortable with asking the bigger questions.
Jane is embraces her inner sucker.
STEP 2: ENJOY A SUCKER because we didn’t make this box just to make you unhappy
We included a handful of delicious gourmet lollipops for a reason. Also we don’t want to see you sad all the time.
STEP 3: GIVE A SUCKER we’ve included the best gif t: the gif t of giving
What’s the best way to start a dialogue? You surprise someone with a really touching card that questions their existance. Ok, it might get a little akward for a second, but it’ll be worth it, we promise.
08
BFA 2015 Selected Works Process Book | 09
Life’s Little Suckers: The Project + The Process
Ironically, the process of our collaboration was ver y similar to the steps included in the Life’s Little Suckers activity box
STEP 1: MAKE SOMETHING it can either be a piece of writing or a piece of ar t
STEP 2: SWAP IT WITH YOUR PARTNER trade your piece of writing with your par tners ar t or vice versa
STEP 3: RESPOND create another piece of ar t or writing in response to their work
STEP 4: REPEAT do it again and again until you create an interesting body of work. Or until your teacher tells you to stop.
BECAUSE ALL GREAT IDEAS START OFF AS A GOOD CONVERSATION it was also an assignment, but you know what I mean.
Ironically this project began as a collaboration, or a visual dialogue with my friend and class mate, Laura Turanchik. What began as a class assignment in the beginning of January 2014 turned into a semester long exploration of our own big questions in life.
10
BFA 2015 Selected Works Process Book | 11
Life’s Little Suckers: The Project + The Process
WE MADE COOL THINGS the results were unexpected, revealing, personal and just cool
Some of the pieces we made included photography, paper collage, printed design, drawings, scanning my face, and writing game board instructions. Here are a few of them.
f luid life lines
“none of us are getting out of this alive”
modern day fair y tales, telling stories and playing with cut out pigs.
“what defines who you are”
12
BFA 2015 Selected Works Process Book | 13
Life’s Little Suckers: The Project + The Process
2 to 6 Players
OBJECT: Collect money and LIFE Tiles, and have the highest dollar amount at the end of the game.
LIFE TILES
WHAT YOU DO ON YOUR TURN
Each LIFE Tile carries a secret message within it: it tells you the cash value of how much money you have won for doing absolutely nothing. Wonderful! Clearly this is how life really works, isn’t it?
So this is your time to shine, so don’t screw it up because in life you don’t get second chances (well, maybe you do in this rediculous game). Spin the wheel, move your car, and do whatever the game board tells you because you will definitely become successful by conforming to the standard. You may forget to think for yourself, but that is ok.
CARDS
Separate the cards into 4 decks: Career Cards, Salary Cards, House Deeds and Stocks. These four deck of cards sum up your entire existence.
GETTING STARTED
INSURANCE POLICIES BANK LOANS
On your first turn, decide either to start a career, or to start college.
Separate the Automobile Insurance Policies, Homeowner’s Insurance Policies and Bank Loans. Finally this game is hitting on reality. MONEY
Choose one player to be the banker. This player is in charge of all money in the bank. Basically, this person will have too much power throughout this game. CARS AND PEGS
The pink peg represents girls, and the blue peg represents guys. Actually, we shouldn’t write this here because we’re likely to be sued for “discrimination”.
time, pressure and stress
family values or financial values
College offers more career opportunities but who wants to waste all that time in school anways?
If you draw these Career and Salary Cards, you’ll be a Superstar making $70,000
Draw a Career Card: pick your card from the deck. If you choose a card that says “degree required”, you better pick again because you didn’t go to college sucka! Draw a Salary card: Now you can pick out a sallary card. And yes it’s possible to be an artist and earn $100,000 dollars a year according to this game. What a wonderful fantasy.
a re -written parody of the game of Life
thoughts on identity and re -purposed imager y
“I don’t run time/time runs me”
14
searching for clues in my sketchbook
BFA 2015 Selected Works Process Book | 15
Life’s Little Suckers: The Project + The Process
it’s the magic recipe to making people talk about uncomfor table ques tions
THIS IS WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT Death, reincarnation, personal identity, time, religion, and family values among other things. We didn’t know we were interested in exploring any of these topics till this assignment pulled it out of us. And of course, the best things are born out of a good conversation.
PUTTING IT TOGETHER. This was the most challenging part of the collaboration. What do we do with all of these things we made? I put on my Sherlock hat and decided to look figure out how all of these pieces of this little puzzle could come together.
THE ANSWER WAS CANDY, DUH. After banging my head against my desk for a couple weeks, I found myself writing humorous little headlines about some serious subjects. Mix it with candy and it couldn’t get any more appealing.
16
BFA 2015 Selected Works Process Book | 17
Life’s Little Suckers: The Project + The Process
18
BFA 2015 Selected Works Process Book | 19
RUKMINI PODDAR rukmini.co UFGD 2015