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SISYPHUS THE DAY AFTER:
One must imagine Sisyphus happy

Variations on an installation, 2016

Sisyphus never complained until he read Albert Camus describing him as the ideal absurd in the The Myth Of Sisyphus

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CRISIS OF THE WALLS — institutional sunset
4 projector video installation, basement studio at the Art Institute of Chicago, 2016

The white walls of my studio are being slowly covered in paint. The broom I use allows no particular aesthetics, besides the aesthetics of labor. This performance is later projected back on the walls.

At first, the projected video brightly illuminates the dark room until the laborious gestures stroke by stroke reduce the projected light. By the time all surfaces are covered, the room stands in darkness again.

Erasure of light. Labor in motion.

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APROPER ERASURE — DISEMBODIED LABOR
stop motion documentation of the making and erasing of a large wall mural. dimensions: projection 12:50, video 5:00, 11.5 x 44 feet 2012-2013, mixed media on gallery wall, dual channel video installation

I make wall drawings for the audience and prompt them to physically wash away the marks to leave nothing but the trace of it. Make something from nothing and back to nothing, corresponding to Virno’s producing “something from nothing” or “transforming one thing into another” in his book A Grammar of the Multitude: For an Analysis of Contemporary Forms of Life

Mops and spray bottles were supplied as an invitation to activate the drawing. The entire process is documented.

Double disembodiment:
The act of physical erasing suggest a transformative image reduction into dust particles. Then the switch from physical to virtual — the physical labor projected back onto the gallery wall — disembodies the act of erasing itself including the people doing the work. This interrogates the concept of materiality, not only the materiality of the image but the viewers, who are also inseparable part pf the work.

Labor:
Artist is never fully visible, only a suggestion, a mark, a shadow. What’s the assumed position of the viewer? If the audience does most of the labor, what’s the role of the artist? Who is working for who and why such participation matters? Can participatory art truly follow a democratic idiom?

intensity of the tangible. physical labor.

erase until it’s gone. document. project back.

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TRACE WITH ME — TRUST GAME
guided audience performance in dictated setting.
Boston Cyberarts Festival, Boston, 2011
Dumbo Art Festival, New York, 2012

It's like capturing that specific kind of enthusiasm that Harun Farocki’s depicts in his film A New Product (2012). The irony of his piece is the optimistic attitude he captures about the never ending corporate meetings in attempt to solve “work-life balance”. The biggest irony is the "optimistic" participation of the workers and their blindness to their own exploitation. Although abstractly, this extreme utopian flavor is what I playfully offer to my audiences.

Audience members follow a glowing dot as it's moving on a white wall. The movement of the dot is seemingly unpredictable, but require a level of trust as it follows the hands of the artist as her drawing was previously recorded at actual speed. By tracing the movement of the dot, a drawing reveals.

As participants “blindly” trace the movement, each visitor interaction transforms into a playful performance about anticipation, control, tolerance and delayed gratification or disappointment.

The outcome of each drawing is dependent on the frequency of visitor interaction, the length of each session, and the chosen color combinations.

MID-CONVERSATIONAL MERGE
subSamson 2010
Cross-disciplinary sound and visual conversation
Duration 3 hours.

The performance consisted visitors participating in a spontaneous visual/sound conversation—with their actions essentially creating a constantly changing stage. As a response to the sounds made by guest vocal percussionist Shodekeh, visitors physically altered the graphite wall drawing. The drawing stood there as an anti-stage, a type of stage that requires change in it's form and size. Instead of a fixed area of action, a constantly changing place that reflects the collective responses of the audience>artspace>sound conversation.

a merge of tangible/sound/virtual voices = navigating change while everything in motion