Thingification was a multi-media video installation which first occurred at CalArts in 2012.
The title came to me in a dream, in my dream its meaning was quite the opposite of how the word was used by Césaire. Instead of a person who becomes a thing, it described a world of machines which had come to life.
The piece centers around the rehabilitation of a discard audio/video cart, which has been appended to and built upon and which functions as a sculpture, a site of performances and as an instrument which produces and exhibits videos.
On the bottom-left an analog patch bay connects 3 VCRs which, along with a hi-8 camera, are used to film and edit videos. As the films are continuously copied and re-copied the image degenerates. The artifacts and distortions of the video begin to overpower the image. Static, blue screens and highly degraded images reveal glimpses into a series of expressionistic self portraits.
In the interior of the a/v tower a mess of wires holds a plaster casting of the artist’s head. Additional tvs and dollies are savagely strapped to the a/v tower using ratchets and guy-wires, creating a large rolling frankenstein. Important to the conception of the piece is that the a/v tower was being “given a second life.” And in service of that goal effort was made to try to make the sculpture as mobile as possible, it is connected to the wall by a 100′ extension cord.
It was exhibited at Michael Parker’s Loft Space, and Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.
Installation View
Excerpt: “The Horror, The Tinkler and The Thinker”
Excerpt: “The Hand of The Artist”