365 Days A Catalogue of Tears by Laurel Nakadate #cry #art #performance

Description:
Laurel Nakadate began 365 Days:A Catalogue of Tears on January 1, 2010. She had been looking at Facebook and other social sites and felt like everyone was constantly presenting themselves as happy. So she decided to do the opposite. Every single day for a year, she photographed herself before, during, or after crying.

The photos were taken wherever life happened to take her, including apartments, hotels, trains, planes, and her childhood home. Some days she cried for personal reasons. On harder days, she used old memories, sad pop songs, or even newspaper headlines to bring the tears out. By September and October, she said the project had become exhausting, almost like forcing herself to exercise every day. Still, she kept going.

The performance ended on December 31, 2010. On that final day, Nakadate said she cried because the project itself was ending. After 365 days, crying no longer felt like a huge emotional event to her. It had become something closer to an ordinary part of being alive.