Objects taken elements from inside these objects, by themselves rendered incomplete, refabrication of them gives them new context and new memories for the new owner (objects taken from people’s trash as though throwing out pieces of their lives)
This relates directly to the concept of childbirth. The child is ultimately attached to the mother indefinitely, until the cord is cut, until a physical removal is completed. The child is made up of all the parts of the mother, as it grows by itself but doesn’t completely have a name for itself, or something to call its own. Through the process of birth, the child is given its first exposure to the outside world. Through the various sights and emotions the child is faced with, this person becomes its own self, as time passes on, is not imagined as a unit inside the mother’s body but becomes a self, remade from its original tiny organs into someone substantial and self-worthy.
In the video, these specfic objects will in fact have their cords cut; they have already been taken out of their respective larger object, held hostage in a way. Through videotaping the process of making the object its own in itself, we can see what we normally don’t see in human development; the trial and error, the lull periods, the nourishment, the rejection, the destruction, usually we only get glimpses into these things, but in having an eye on the artist and the object the entire time we are faced head to head with what we may not want to see. the honest struggle of an object wanting to exist in itself.
A) I plan to create a 5-10 minute video (depending on length of footage and necessity of certain processes being included) of documentation of my refabrication of smaller objects that once existed as part of a larger whole. What is shown on video will be performance, so the video will serve as an experimental documentation of my process. I will use the audio experienced in the actual performance as well as perhaps conversation between my collaborator and I about our hopes for children and the possibility of creating a life.
B) The first and most important step in this project is the collection of the individual objects that will be taken apart and put back together in a new way as to have some kind of independent functionality. I have already begun this process by driving around the suburban area surrounding my community and picking up items left on the side of the road, for our own personal consumption. If the collection of these items refuses to be futile I will resort to my friends donating objects with which they have no specific use for anymore. These items will be diagrammed on graph paper and charts will be outlined of each object as to its functionality and how this can be changed and in what kind of elimination and addition will the object be able to function on its own. Once each object is outlined, video footage of each object by itself, in an open area without any kind of visible structure in front of or behind, will be shot, as well as footage of my location of each object to the place in which the performance will be shot.
My friend Dave will be my collaborator, becoming another body in the performance, and assisting me with strength that I may not have in my struggle to destroy and recombine these objects. Dave will also be the other voice in the audible conversations about the birth of children and the prospect of this occurrence in our own individual lives.
Video footage will be shot of the manipulation of each individual object, documenting both its trials for the artist, and its own way of becoming its own object, by the manipulation with my hands and tools. As time progresses not only will we see the object morph into another but we will also catch the morphing of my own personal body and my patience and physical weariness. This will then present the question of, is my body really ready for the exhaustion of the production and metamorphosis of a child?
If I can create these objects into things entirely new, functional, and successful, without immediate failure, then perhaps there is an answer to the question. But my ultimate psychic vision is that the distress of my manipulation of these objects will wear me down to the point of not being able to put any more work into them that already exists. A factory, a gigantic company can produce these objects, without any kind of human interaction, but on machines. Should lives be treated like they are on a conveyer belt? The answer to this is, of course, no. But with human interaction comes distress and of course, failure. Our own production of our own children will wear us out to the point of not being able to try any longer. But the prospects of what the child may actually become should be enough impetus to not completely lose any kind of dynamic involvement in the child’s coming into being.
The video footage will be done with straight shots, videotaped on a tripod and zoomed in to show detail at certain points. There will be no editing to the actual video footage–no superimposing, no keys, no artistic layering or colorization efforts. Just pure documentary footage, with straight cuts of the working process, intersected with black Slug to break apart individual scenes. The documentary footage will be edited with Final Cut Pro, and the sound will be recorded both in real-time and alternately, and cut up and edited also in FCP. The audience is generally those who have had any thoughts of what kind of involvement, discomfort, and weariness raising another human being could become. Those in my generation will be able to understand this process, and those who already have children and have already endured large amounts of stress will be able to answer the question that I have proposed. Perhaps they had an easier time, perhaps they don’t see children as refabricated objects as I have turned them into. Either way it presents one viewpoint on the parent-child involvement stage.
This video will be intended to be seen as an installation, with a video projection, and the actual remade objects lined up as coming out of the screen, directly perpendicular to the center of the image frame.
The most important part of this whole process is finding the right objects–being able to have a good springboard, and good material to work from, as well as having the appropriate tools for the destruction and reworking.
Necessities are at least 2 60 minute DV tapes, as there is not a known time frame for which these objects will recreate themselves.
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