Client: Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial 2008
installation come down.
when you enter from the main hall of the Armory's second floor, you pass through a
heavy black curtain and then step into the tent. six cots with blue wool blankets are in a row to
the left and quiet music of warm tones from the right. the light is dim and the fabric covering the
hand lashed bamboo frame is made of sqares like a quilt. there is gental back lighting. a triage
tent for peace. you can lie down and sleep to the sleeping pill music or choose to pass through.
when you come out the far end of the tent, you are under the mezzanine
and looking out over the drill hall through the open french doors. you still don't see the moose
heads. faint cool light from the drill hall rakes in through the open doors and cuts across the tent.
the only other light is from the small bulb on a sewing machine. the sewing machine is an old
green industrial model built into a table. behind the sewing machine is a huge quilt made of the
same sized squares as the tent, 20"'s. the center 5 squares make a red cross but are sewn on so
it appears the cross is falling apart. sloppy. on the opposite wall is a dark staircase with a sign
written in a bold child like hand, MOOSE LEVEL.
hung in the stairwell, is a stained and beat up camping lantern with thick old glass, very
dimly lit. upstairs is a dark room with a kind of bamboo fence, three old lanterns with red light
making circles on the low ceiling. under the lanterns three speakers play snatches of
conversation and street noise like passing car sound systems on a brooklyn st. all the cables for
the sound and lanterns are fanned out and then converge to wrap around a long bamboo prop for
the fence like a tail. taken all together its like an urban war bug warning us in some way we can't
comprehend.
past the dragonfly fence structure, in the dark, is an open door to a small room with a
long industrial bench down one side and a row of battered steel lockers across the back wall. a
guitar hangs upright from a locker door. a phonograph turntable with a hawk feather mounted to
the platter sticking up and out at a 45 degree angle, rotates and strums the guitar very lightly. the
guitar is electric and plays low through an old scuffed fender reverb amp. the reverb is up.
arpeggiator is off. treble down, bass up. the guitar is open tuned, down and away from a western
open tuning... more like west african. this guitar playing turntable device is used a few times on
the "sleeping pill" soundtrack being played in the tent. a single bare light bulb is hidden in the
bottom of the locker next to the guitar so that only a sliver of light spikes out from the bottom of
the locker, casting the shadow of the rotating feather in a dance back and forth along the
opposite wall from the bench. its the only light in the room. scrap bamboo is piled behind the
bench. in a dark corner, a ragged white flag (7" x 11") from the same cloth as the tent is fitted
around a 5' length of 3/4'' inch bamboo.
coming out of the guitar room it is very dark. a small video on the wall through another
door draws you onto the balcony. the video is of a humming bird suspended in flight and is
projected so small the humming bird is almost life size. the projection is about 1' off the floor.
there is an intense yet quiet sound of humming coming from the heap of cables, projector and
small 4" wooden speakers stacked in a pile in front of the humming bird projection. the humming
sound feels like its a bird but its from an old arp 2600 analog synth which was used extensively
on the sleeping pill sound track inside the tent. as your eyes adjust to the dark you realize you're
on the balcony overlooking the tent. after a while your eyes adjust further and you start to make
out the moose heads mounted at eye-level around the walls looking down onto the tent with
sleeping people inside.
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3:36
DJ Olive - Brisbane 2/2/2007by Nightrider694,865 views
This is one very "bent" video. =p
jesusgray922 1 month ago
thats nice
orfeotitus 2 years ago