Under Construction (2012)
A site-specific video performance and part of my MFA thesis Negotiating Documentary Space.
The author (myself) is in the process of removing part of the gallery wall. In the meanwhile, behind him plays a short documentary video wherein he is interviewing the main players who planned, designed, and built the gallery space itself - except, that is, for the manual laborer who could not be located. So, the author takes up this position in the built environment; instead of installing the drywall where paintings will be hung, he removes a sheet, in a gesture attempting to peel back the "chain of command" behind the physical space.
Performed during the 2012 MFA Thesis show at the Visual Arts Center. This piece attempts to tie up several loose ends in the body of work at hand. I began to investigate public space as an important factor in documenting existing conflict, and explored various ways to give to the space coherent meaning. I attempted various ways of developing a reciprocal relation between the subject and myself, including a reversal of subject and viewer (“Proyecto Testimonio”), relation of site to conflicting parties (“Day Labor: St. Johns”), subjugation between author and subject (“Day Labor”). These projects also mean to explore distinctions between work-environment (the space) and the worker (the subject) and attempt to use spatial devices to represent these distinctions. I believe that division of class and alienation of labor need clear conceptual devices in order to avoid confused visual representation, or to fall into reifying symbolic representation (i.e. “figures of speech”). I have attempted to avoid tropes of documentary video and the narrative devices that single channel video often depend upon. “Under Construction” attempts one step further. It divides interviews into near and mid-shots, and divides visual representation into two sorts of shots: the “interview” with subject facing forward, and the “b-roll” with subject (myself, performing the role of the laborer) facing away from the viewer. “Interview” is a mode reserved for administrators, while “b-roll” is a mode reserved for artists and laborers. “Under Construction” attempts to visually and physically represent the labor involved in the construction of the site – and the piece itself. Labor, exhibition, representation, and site converge amidst a narrative of administrative command. The piece attempts to further connect the labor of the site with the physical site by drawing attention to its critical and actual deconstruction: a worker (in this case, myself i.e. the author) removes a piece of drywall, thereby “hanging” the piece and disrupting the image in the process.
The author (myself) is in the process of removing part of the gallery wall. In the meanwhile, behind him plays a short documentary video wherein he is interviewing the main players who planned, designed, and built the gallery space itself - except, that is, for the manual laborer who could not be located. So, the author takes up this position in the built environment; instead of installing the drywall where paintings will be hung, he removes a sheet, in a gesture attempting to peel back the "chain of command" behind the physical space.
Performed during the 2012 MFA Thesis show at the Visual Arts Center. This piece attempts to tie up several loose ends in the body of work at hand. I began to investigate public space as an important factor in documenting existing conflict, and explored various ways to give to the space coherent meaning. I attempted various ways of developing a reciprocal relation between the subject and myself, including a reversal of subject and viewer (“Proyecto Testimonio”), relation of site to conflicting parties (“Day Labor: St. Johns”), subjugation between author and subject (“Day Labor”). These projects also mean to explore distinctions between work-environment (the space) and the worker (the subject) and attempt to use spatial devices to represent these distinctions. I believe that division of class and alienation of labor need clear conceptual devices in order to avoid confused visual representation, or to fall into reifying symbolic representation (i.e. “figures of speech”). I have attempted to avoid tropes of documentary video and the narrative devices that single channel video often depend upon. “Under Construction” attempts one step further. It divides interviews into near and mid-shots, and divides visual representation into two sorts of shots: the “interview” with subject facing forward, and the “b-roll” with subject (myself, performing the role of the laborer) facing away from the viewer. “Interview” is a mode reserved for administrators, while “b-roll” is a mode reserved for artists and laborers. “Under Construction” attempts to visually and physically represent the labor involved in the construction of the site – and the piece itself. Labor, exhibition, representation, and site converge amidst a narrative of administrative command. The piece attempts to further connect the labor of the site with the physical site by drawing attention to its critical and actual deconstruction: a worker (in this case, myself i.e. the author) removes a piece of drywall, thereby “hanging” the piece and disrupting the image in the process.
