Installation Statement In Spring 2006 Second Street Gallery invited artists and writers to collaborate on art inspired by the exhibition's title and theme Love Letters. Jennifer Van Winkle invited Laura Parsons to be her co-conspirator in the creation of a collaborative artwork. Out of their initial discussions/planning, they discovered that they had mutual love for Chicago and they had both lived in Chicago for most of their 20's, with several years of overlap. This discovery led them to create a performance in Chicago, May 11-15, 2006 (24/7). The performance covered 227.1 square miles (land area of Chicago), and involved driving, walking and some libations. Upon returning to Charlottesville, Van Winkle and Parsons created the interactive installation, Never Enough Time (The Love Shack) inspired by their performance in Chicago, the plethora of entertainment, dating, moving sales, and self-improvement advertised on flyers/posters in cities, and the form of a S-shaped courting seat. The S-shaped courting seat traditionally allowed a courting couple to sit together, but not face one another directly. Never Enough Time (The Love Shack) has two interior spaces which allow each participant/viewer to have a room of their own. Each interior space (each side of the interior) has a hand-constructed bench with a cushion. The spaces and objects in each space (benches, cushions, wall color, framed pictures) are slightly different. Between the two spaces is a window with window binds on either side. These blinds allow "the couple" choices in communication (both visual and verbal). They can communicate through open blinds, glance at each other through partially open blinds, or block one another's view, and create a sense of privacy behind closed blinds. The exterior curves of Never Enough Time (The Love Shack) are covered with posters and flyers written and designed by Parsons. The events and activities are fictitious but some of the locations are actual addresses for establishments/places in Chicago. All the photographs highlighted in the posters/flyers were taken by Parsons during the May performance in Chicago. Many of the posters refer to themes surrounding love and relationships, including speed dating services, kundalini yoga, psychic readings, and the Primate Festival. Other posters refer to the cultural milieu of Chicago, the surge of music, the park festivals, and film festivals. The posters have wit, satire, and a touch of the absurd both in text and image. Van Winkle and Parsons used maple seed pods throughout the installation both as a design element and a symbolic icon for union. While in Chicago during their May performance, these pods covered many of the neighborhood sidewalks, streets and parked cars. close window