Do we, in New Jersey, live in a bubble? If we do, the wider world will soon be able to call us on it. On June 17 and 18, an actual bubble known as the Truth Booth will pull into Mana Contemporary, the Jersey City arts center. If all goes as planned, many of us will climb inside it and offer the straight dope about what we think and feel. Maybe about Donald and Bernie and Hillary, maybe not.
“You don’t have to talk about the political campaign, though that was our goal starting out,” says Will Sylvester, a member of the Cause Collective, the New York-based group of artists that put together the 14-foot tall by 23-foot wide inflatable speech bubble five years ago and have since sent it to countries including Ireland and Afghanistan. The Booth collects two-minute truths from anyone inclined to tell them by way of an onboard video camera that issues the prompt, “The truth is … “; the videos are later edited, compiled and exhibited.
The Jersey City stop is part of a new American chapter in the booth’s travels. The Collective hopes to record and share each state’s truths before the November election.
“We don’t know yet if we’re going to make it to all 50 states, but Jersey City is our first official stop,” says Sylvester. Is that because veracity is among our strong suits? Maybe, says Sylvester: “There’s no BS in Jersey.”