E-Mail This Article to a Friend HERE COMES THE SUN Rose Marshack sells the sun; Steve Albini records BY CAMILLE DODERO

Rose Marshack is selling tickets to this Sunday’s sunset. Yep, that’s right, tickets to this Sunday’s sunset are $2, available online through TicketWeb. The event is scheduled for 8:17 p.m., with doors at 7:17. A master-of-fine-arts candidate specializing in narrative media at the University of Illinois, Marshack needed a final project to complete her degree, so she decided to commodify a resource that’s accessible to the entire earth: the sun. She booked a 12-date "tour" for A Ticket to the Sunset, selling $2-to-$16 slots to view the daily phenomenon — along with commemorative T-shirts, tour posters drawn by artist Jay Ryan, and bootleg DVDs.

Marshack plays bass with the Poster Children, an Urbana-based indie/post-wave foursome who recorded their 1991 album Flower Power (Frontier) with Steve Albini. She also got Albini to participate in the conceptual-art project: she asked him to "record the sunset" on the tour’s Chicago date and then to release the audio track online. Albini agreed. After all, Marshack points out, Albini once actually recorded David Yow’s testicles for a Jesus Lizard song.

Readying herself for this Sunday’s big event, Marshack corresponded with the Phoenix by e-mail to explain the genesis of the piece.

Q: What inspired you to sell tickets to the sunset?

A: People don’t spend a lot of time looking at things like the sunset. They spend a lot more time working to make money so they can pay for a vacation where they can go watch the sunset. I figure, if I offer people tickets, it can be like a little mini-vacation: they can feel justified in taking a bit of time off — they paid for it.

Q: How’d you pick the tour dates?

A: April 30th was the MFA show opening, so my idea was that I wanted people to walk around the gallery and admire the opening, admire everyone’s art, and then I wanted them to go outside and watch the sunset and then say, "Wow, great job, Rose!"

The rest of the tour dates go anti-clockwise around the US, like a rock tour. There are no dates where the sun has more than a six-hour drive from one show to the next, because, you know, the sun’s got to rise the next morning. It has to be there to rise.

Q: Some cities — Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles — sold out. You must’ve had some amazing PR.

A: Yes, in those areas, people are quite familiar with the sunset. It has a big fanbase out West.

Q: Steve Albini recorded the March 16 sunset in Chicago, which will be available on iTunes. How’d you get him involved?

A: He was so nice when I called him; I think he’s always "up" for what he would call "a gag." When I first asked him to record the sunset, he asked if there would be bleachers and people and stuff, and I said, "No, it’s just the actual sunset, you can record it anywhere you’d like; it’s like recording David Yow’s testicles, except without the testicles, and with the sun." He said, "Great, I’ll do it."

Q: Why’d you seek a legitimate ticket seller to vend your tickets?

A: This was the most important element of the project for me; this is conceptual artwork and it is about the mediation of nature through technology, and also about the commodification of beauty, and about how authority plays into this type of mediation. TicketWeb is an authority figure, just as Steve Albini is another authority. Perhaps just any audio recording of the sunset wouldn’t be that interesting to listen to — but to some people, a Steve Albini–recorded sunset would be fascinating.

Hacking social systems is an important part of my artwork.... For another project, I was able to get a men’s bathroom at the [University of Illinois] declared "Unisex" for a couple of hours; I could have just posted a sign on the door, but the fun and interesting part to me was to go through the proper channels to get this declared legitimately. I like to make stuff that "wakes people up" and plays with the system, so if I can get the actual components of the system — like the people who run it — to accept and help me play with my ideas, I feel like I’ve accomplished even more.

Q: It’s been raining in Boston for over a week, so there’s a chance it might be too overcast on June 5 to view the sunset. Will there be a rain date?

A: The tickets say RAIN OR SHINE/MONEY BACK GUARANTEE IF THE SUN DOES NOT SET. To me, the sunset involves the sky changing from light to dark. If that doesn’t happen, I will have to either give money back or schedule another date.

I was actually trying to get event insurance for these events, in case the sun didn’t set, and no company would insure me. Isn’t that funny?

For more information, visit www.ticketstothesunset.com.