NUIT BLANCHE 2009: CARLY BENKENDORF INTERVIEW

Carly Benkendorf, a 2008 graduate of Ryerson University’s Media Arts program, will display her thesis project at Nuit Blanche this year. Her work will appear as part of the Light up the Night exhibit, which showcases Ryerson University’s talent, past and present.

InCENTive, Benkendorf’s 16.5-foot-long installation, is made of 10,000 authentic wishes printed on pennies. And that is only the surface of this interactive feat. www.i-wish.ca, InCENTive’s website, continues to collect wishes entered from around the world. The best part is you can read them all; you can even take some as souvenirs if you’re lucky enough to attend the exhibit.

SHARP OBJEX: Why did you choose pennies for this project?

Carly Benkendorf: I wanted to add value to the penny by putting a wish on it. People often throw pennies away or give them away without thinking about it. What I want people to take away from InCENTive is that everything adds up: I collected over $ 100 of pennies from people.

SO: How did you make these wishes fit on pennies?

CB: There are these things called wafer seals and they just happen to be the exact size of a penny. The font is size six I think; it’s very small, but definitely readable.

SO: How did you go get so many wishes? Who did you ask?

CB: Money is kind of the network; it just circles around from person to person. I figured I would try to follow that kind of network but socially; I would tell all my friends about the project I had on www.i-wish.ca, they would tell their friends, and it spread that way. I used Facebook, different forums; there are a few newspaper articles, blogs.

It was pretty cool because I only intended to get wishes from Toronto or the GTA, but I ended up getting wishes from, so far, 28 different countries around the world and over 250 cities. I have received wishes from Japan, Australia, some from Dubai, Finland, Brazil, pretty much every state in the US, all over Canada; it has reached really far.

SO: What are some of the wishes you have gotten so far?

CB: I have gotten so many! A lot of them are just wishes for world peace, money, love, and family. Some are specific like “I wish for a puppy.’ Then there are the strange ones like “I wish I could shoot fireballs from my wrists.” I had some really sad wishes as well, people wishing for boyfriends, or wishing that people would notice them.

SO: Do you continue to make these pennies?

CB: Yes. The permanent display has the 10,000 pennies, but I print them out as people continue to submit wishes. I circulate the pennies myself, and they will be given away at Nuit Blanche as well - each one of those has someone’s wish on it. So everyone’s entered wish will definitely be on a penny somewhere. 

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