From here to there under an umbrella

From roses and chocolates to candles and rings, there are certain items that carry that romantic "je ne sais quoi." Umbrellas aren't typically a part of that assortment, but for Chris Barr they have carried that idealistic suggestion of love and intimacy for quite some time.

When Barr was a freshman in college at West Virginia University he came out of a class one day to find it was pouring rain. As he began walking, a girl in front of him was becoming soaked so he offered to walk her home under the safety of his umbrella.

"In two or three blocks we got to know each other and the next week she gave me her phone number and we dated for a while after that," Barr said. "It was just really interesting to me how someone who was a complete stranger before that, in two or three blocks, there could be some kind of seed planted for something else."

With that romantic image forever implanted in his mind and as the art graduate student he is, Barr decided to make a project of it. "From Here to There Under an Umbrella" he called it, and his umbrella taxi service was born.

Barr presented the project idea for the Conflux Festival in Brooklyn this past September. Many projects along with Barr's dealt with urban space, psycho geography and urban exploration.

Through requests on his website and phone messages, Barr set up walks with his subjects and kept them company. While he admits he didn't help people reach their destinations any faster, like taxis do, he said that really wasn't the point of his project.

"I'm really interested in inserting small talk in conversation back into public spaces and reinvigorating them on that level," Barr said. "I want to create artwork that you can find a place in your everyday life rather than hanging a painting in a gallery. This is more of a social experiment regarding what public space means in our society."

For the project, Barr escorted four to five people in New York City for what he considers the typical walking time of about 20 minutes. Barr decided to repeat the social experiment in Buffalo. He walked with the same number of people in Buffalo during the second implementation, usually in places like Elmwood where there is typically more foot traffic.

According to Barr, the umbrella is a piece of portable architecture that creates a little bubble, or a semi-private space, within a public space. Within that bubble people could learn tidbits about one another they never before knew.

A friend of Barr's had her own umbrella story when she learned of the project.

"I actually was very intrigued because I had a very similar story," said Soyeon Jun, a UB alumna. "I was sixteen and it was raining one day during midterms. I forgot my umbrella and the guy I had a crush on, but never talked to, came over with his and we talked and walked home together. It was very innocent and romantic."

While some may find the romanticized image of a couple under the umbrella sweet, others said being so close to strangers can be dangerous.

"As I was leaving the CFA one time some random man followed me and jumped under my umbrella," said Caesandra Seawell, a media studies graduate student. "It was very uncomfortable and I felt he was violating my personal space."

"Chris doesn't look like an axe murderer or someone who's going to con you out of what's in your pockets which is why I think his project worked so well," she said. "In any other context, especially with someone I didn't know, I don't know that I would have participated."

That is, however, Barr's entire point behind the conceptual art - to bring people together and limit their personal space.

"The idea," he said, "is that when you get caught in a rainstorm you won't hesitate to jump under someone else's umbrella, even though it means you're going to have to walk shoulder to shoulder with them and get in a more intimate situation than you might otherwise."