ACP selects Beth Lilly’s ‘Gifted’ for 2009 public art project

Last week Atlanta Celebrates Photography announced the selection of “Gifted,” a proposal by local artist and photographer Beth Lilly, for its next ACP public art project. More details will solidify as “Gifted” marches toward completion, but for the moment, this much is clear: The project will involve the literal gift of 1,200 limited-edition prints, distributed to the public for free during ACP’s citywide festival in October.

Beth Lilly (aka the Oracle @ Wifi) specializes in collaboration — that is, she creates art by embracing and reworking the social networking trends of our digital media-saturated society in surprisingly novel ways. Lilly’s Oracle @ Wifi series, for instance, is an ongoing, improvisational performance-meets-photography project. On the seventh day of each month, Lilly invites the public to call her with a “question for the Oracle.” Basically, you can ask her anything, so long as the wording is tasteful and involves a future event. Over the past three years, the Oracle has fielded queries as specific as “Will I get into law school and become a successful lawyer?” to such fantastic head-scratchers as “What do I really really really want?” and “Are my family and me moving to the United States?” The Oracle’s response comes in the form of three photos, taken at whatever location Lilly may be, which are then randomly assigned to each caller’s question. As in other forms of divination, the meaning of these “image-fortunes” is a matter of free association.