INTERVIEW
I
see home movies used a lot in your pieces. Was the camera always
rolling when you were a kid?
My grandfather
shot a lot of super 8 home movies from the 50's - 70's. He was
a set designer for movies and TV in NYC and seemed to have a
good eye for composition. His son, my uncle, wanted to go to
film school, but my grandfather refused, so he studied biomedical
engineering and business instead, but always shot film and video
as a hobby. While he was in grad school, in Buffalo, he had
an 80's version of the porta-pak camera. This was when I was
in elementary school, also in Buffalo, so there are lots of
videos of my sister and I from that time. After that my family
began to spread out, my grandparents retired in Florida, my
uncle moved to New Jersey and then my mom took my sister and
I to Florida a few years later. I hadn't thought about it until
now, but we didn't have any home movies after that and the video
cameras and computers that my friend's parents had seemed like
luxury objects to me.
How
did you decide on these media to communicate your messages?
I studied
sculpture and experimental studio in undergrad and right away
began to make installations and multiples. As my work became
more about performative processes I began to videotape the processes.
The first piece in which I combined sculpture and video was
made in my senior year, "i construct a containing space
around me" 1997. For that I welded a structure around myself,
and the size and shape was determined by how far I could reach
while standing in the center. I videotaped that process and
presented the video on a monitor lying on its back on the floor
inside the structure, which kind of looked like a large rusty
potato. There were cracks in between the welded pieces of sheet
steel through which the viewer could watch the video. I was
making a lot of things relating to protective structures.In
grad school I studied sculpture as well, but also began to focus
more on video. I finally learned to edit online and also started
to build walls and rooms for my installations. My scale grew
because I had more space to work in and had access to video
projectors for the fist time. After grad school I moved to LA
and began working in the small second bedroom of my apartment,
so again the studio sort of influenced what I was able to make,
and I began to focus more on work I could make on the computer.
I also began to teach video at that time, so perhaps that influenced
things too. But really, I start with an issue I am dealing with
and think about how to best explore that issue.Two of the pieces
I am working on now are a video projection and a series of drawings
on parchment. The drawings have to be on parchment because they
refer to Ketubot, ancient Jewish marriage contracts, which were
historically illuminated manuscripts on parchment. I found goatskin
parchment, which was the type used in the parts of Eastern Europe
that my family originated from. So a conceptual link to my choice
of materials is also important.
Did
your work focus on the separation/connection theme before you
were reunited with your father?
It did
actually. In retrospect I see that first I was dealing with
the separation from a mentally abusive relationship and the
self protection and recovery from that. Then I was dealing with
mourning the murder of a close friend. Then I started to make
work about the people I am close to and who are part of my support
system. Then my father's return. Now I am starting to make work
about my grandparents who died in Sept. 2003 and Jan. 2004 and
about the relationships between my surviving family members.
I
think your use of tying balloons is the ultimate symbol of futility.
Can you talk about the other pieces that emphasize the creating
and destroying of objects?
The piece you are referring to is "expectations",
which was also part of the three channel video installation
"reparations" both from 2001. I have always been intrigued
with the myth of Sisyphus, but on a more psychological level
these are also about defense mechanisms, whether they are productive
or not. With "71 knives", 1997 - 98, I was attempting
to bandage knives like the one used in my friend's murder. This
was futile because it couldn't actually help him, but at the
same time also renders the knives useless. In "with",
1999 - 2000, my sister and I have to cooperate to keep the wooden
board suspended between us, but at the same time there is a
forced separation because of this effort. "everything's
fine", 1999, creates a situation in which the object is
thrown to the floor and breaks, but then dissolves/disappears
into the floorboards as if it never happened.Right now I am
beginning to shoot hands destroying telephones with a P.O.V.
shot similar to that in "everything's fine." This
piece will be called "i tried to help them" and refers
to the feud between certain family members that began after
my grandparents died. Essentially, my attempts to restore the
communication between them have been exhausting and futile.
In the video, which will be projected onto the floor, I will
play with reverse motion so at times the phones will be put
back together. I guess creation and destruction was present
in "(re)connected" (2000-01) and "fixed"
(2003) as well, although in different ways.
You've
done a very good job of placing the viewer inside scenarios
(the swing, earphones, telephones, perspective of the camera).
Have you been able to witness the emotional impact this has
on your audience?
I have been
told that I have made people cry--particularly with the performance
"71 knives", 1997 - 98 and my recent sound piece "conversations
between daughters", 2001 - 04. This is an empathetic and
cathartic reaction. These reactions were also a result of "(re)connected".
Participants who wrote stories for the jigsaw puzzles described
the emotional release they felt from the process, while participants
in the gallery felt that by spending the time to put the puzzles
together they were forced to read and re-read the stories several
times, letting it really sink in. Most gallery viewers don't
usually take the time to engage with a piece of art for that
long. I guess I always try to make work that serves the cathartic
purpose for myself, but is also emotionally and physically engaging
for the viewer or participant. I am usually the first to set
off museum alarms by touching or getting too close to the art.
I don't think we should be so separated from these experiences.
I like to think of the body (mine and the participants) as another
sculptural element.
For more
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