Christina and Chalet share their experience with Variance Invariance:
Well for us Judy had sent over the package in September of last year ( I believe we were her first recipients). She sent thumbnails of samples from different kits, some were painted on the inside or mirrored which was a cool effect and we chose the kits with mirrored backs. Before we had received them we sketched a couple ideas of how we would manipulate the panels in different configurations and sent them to Judy as a proposal. We also were reading up on topics that were relevant, we thought, to the project. For instance the book we sent her (which she asked for gifts or something in return that responded to the project) was The Grid Book, a text that elaborated on how culture utilizes the form from computer code, to architecture and good stuff like that. She also had Jay Snodgrass collaborate and we received one of his poems created for her project to ponder and inform our process.
We had a couple weeks with it and basically configured it as many times as we could, as a panel of configurations, ones playing with the use or mirrored backs, and then we made one that’s suspended for you to sit down and kind of be surrounded by these floating colored/mirrored panels. It was fun! I attached some images. Once we returned the kit, Judy sent the kit to another set of artists and so on and so forth.
Their collaborative piece is now showing at Flashpoint Gallery, see http://news.art.fsu.edu/2014/06/fsu-art-faculty-judy-rushin-at-flashpoint-gallery-d-c/