Description

I and a look-alike tie our heads together using our hair. We suck our toes and pull ourselves apart.

"Attachments" was created for I Wish I'd Thought of That! Performance Art History Repeats Itself, a group show which invited contemporary performance artists to re-make art historical works. The video cites two art historical performance works, "Relation in Time" (1977) by Ulay and Abramovic and "The Toe-Sucking Video" (1994) by Jeanne Dunning

Statement

Ulay and Abramovic performed "Relation in Time" in October of 1977 at Studio G7 in Bologna. They sat back to back with their hair tied together in a tight knot for the length of time it took for the knot to come undone. The performance lasted for more than seventeen hours. When it was over, this duration gave the performers a measurement they could use to describe the distance existing between them. Seventeen hours (how much?) is how long.

"The Toe-Sucking Video" shows Jeanne Dunning pulling her foot up to her mouth and sucking on her own big toe. Figuratively and physically, her performance closes her into a circle so that the distance between what she wants and who she is measures zero.

"Attachments" is a video performance which superimposes these pieces onto each other. I admire both works not least because they are simple, deliberate and clear. When I thought about re-making them, it wasn't long before they lost these qualities and became more like my own work: deliberately obscured by decorative surfaces. The first surface I find myself running into when I try to turn my bound head is a reflection, i.e. what's behind me, keeping me from turning my head to begin with. "Attachments" is looking for a way to measure lengths of distance between myself and the half of me that keeps me behind its back.