(Photo: Jake Chessum)

At art school at Yale, I wanted to do a project where the Red Cross would come into the gallery space and conduct a blood drive. There’s something really amazing about the regenerative aspect of donating, and I’m interested in how such a personal thing for a donor has an immediate anonymity.

But when I talked to the Yale dean about my idea for a show, a red flag went up. Another Yale artist had recently proposed a project documenting her self-induced abortions, and maybe Yale still had some raw nerves about the media attention that got. They told me, “We just can’t do this.”

I kept trying and was getting shut down over and over again. Finally, a former professor of mine e-mailed my proposal to Zach Feuer, who invited me to curate a summer show of my installation and work by other artists. I’ve never curated anything before, but he’s giving me a lot of freedom. It’s amazing. Then next month I go back to New Haven for another year of school.

As told to Alexandra Peers

Blood Drive runs at Zach Feuer Gallery through September 4.

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• Archive: “Breaking”
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