Tag Archives: video

Zirkel 1.0

April 5, 2012

Zir·kel (German for compass) is an on-going and open-ended collaborative project with Vanessa Enriquez for which we use the most readily available drawing tool we have: our own bodies.

We experiment with a series of gestural inscriptions and erasures using chalk on blackboards. Each piece entails a sequence of a minimum of three types of circular bodily movements defined by structured decision-making, using a matrix of variables of motion and form. The blackboards allow us not only to construct areas proportional to our own reach and size — a key element in the conceptual structure of the work –, but also to experiment freely and learn from the process through a never-ending response to each other and the material, resulting in a graphical grammar of motion and notation.

Through the exploration of angles, rotations, extents and limitations of our body articulations and positions, we map and superimpose our particularities and differences. Each drawing not only is a fertile ground to study gesture and composition, but also becomes a space of negotiation. In this way, Zirkel acts as a device for measuring, anchoring, navigating and locating.

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In the context of our exhibition at the Embassy of Mexico in Berlin (April 4 – May 11, 2012), Zirkel 1.0 presented five impermanent drawings performed on site, a series of photographs of our first 28 experiments, a stop-motion video documenting our method, and the notation system that will continue to be developed, re-calibrated and adapted as we keep introducing new types of movements into our shared practice.


 

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The Other(‘)Steps

January 25, 2012

The walker on the left is my dear friend Sara Zimmerman walking down a path while watching a video of me walking down that same path while watching a video of her walking down the same path as she watched a video of me walking down the path…

The walker on the right is me walking down the path as I watched a video of Sara walking down the same path as she watched a video of me walking down the path as I watched a video of her walking down the path…

All while trying to match our steps with the ones on the screen.

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Deerwalk

January 23, 2007

DEERWALK

(O Regreso Daquele Que Sempre Aquí Esteve)

On the road to Vila Nova de Cerveira, the “land of deer” in northern Portugal, I spotted one of those ‘deer crossing’ road signs. I asked if there were many deer in the area. The reply: hunted to extinction. So story (very, very) abridged, I embarked on a mission to draw the original settler back from exile by way of a 4+km outline of a royal stag over the whole town. After months of walking around the area to gauge the territory (this was in 2003, before Google had mapped the area and before handheld GPS devices were easily available), I realized that the combination of old and modern streets would provide me with all the lines I needed – and much, much more. The drawing itself was described by an unannounced and nocturnal “deerwalk” two years later during the rutting season, for which I wore specially handcrafted ‘hooves’ inspired by traditional Portuguese farmer clogs that stamped a golden ‘deer track’ at every step. The trek was mapped out to start and end at the same spot (i.e. in front of the entrance to the castle, between the two antlers) and was mostly documented by curious passersby.

 

The castle is protected by the antlers of the deer.

The town square is the brain of the deer.

The church is the eye of the deer (looking into the library).

The fountainous garden is the nose of the deer.

The portuguese revolution is the heart of the deer.

The town’s founding father is the (douglas-fir-filled) stomach of the deer.

The art museum was the breakfast of the deer.

The school of art and architecture was the lunch of the deer.

The seat of the local government is the dinner of the deer.

And the hospital is where everybody assumed the deer would end up with badly injured hooves (but didn’t).

 

(This is the design I’m proposing for the (stone) markers that the local government has been intending to install to signal the anatomical bits of the deerscape.)

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With support from the UNESCO, Bienal de Cerveira, Cámara Municipal de Vila Nova de Cerveira, University of California, and Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (FONCA).

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Deerwalk / Deerscape. (O Regreso Daquele Que Sempre Aqui Esteve)
Photos: Ricardo Abreu, Kiko Silva, Mariana Bacelar, Teresa Lameira, Ilya Noé
Special thanks: Catarina Viana, Jorge Silva, Kiko Silva, Henrique Silva.
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It’s art…

January 11, 2004

 

(Jo Bristol knows...)
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Two Loop Walks

January 13, 2002

 

[Show picture list]

Inspired by Escher’s representation of the one-sided surface, ‘Möbius Strip Walk” is a series of nine stills repeated over and over. An indirect self-portrait as an ant walking a never-ending loop.

 

“Mercury Retrograde” is a term used to describe the apparent backward motion of the planet, an effect that has been compared to a slow moving train as viewed from another train traveling parallel to it but faster, and therefore appearing to be moving in reverse.  Inspired by Eadward Muybridge’s motion studies, the video consists of a double loop of 12 sequential stills.

 

 


Produced with the support of Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Mexico. Special thanks: Príamo Lozada, Manolo Arriola, Lauro Bautista, Tania Palacios, Yazmín Daher, hnos. González Yedra and Dulce E.
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