AN INTENTIONAL ACT

ACTION: moving one cord of wood approximately 30 feet.
DATE: 10/28/09
DURATION: 90 minutes
TRANSFORMATION: energy, shape, location, functionality, properties

On October 28, 2009 at 11:15 AM, approximately one cord of firewood was delivered and dumped in my driveway at 525 Waterville Road, Avon, CT. For one hour and fifteen minutes I proceeded to move the pile of wood from the driveway to the side of the house near the basement bulkhead door for easy access and use for the winter. The weather was wet and raining hard and approximately 50 degrees. Wearing a light cotton jacket and work gloves I worked to stack the wood for 90 minutes.

During this process I focused on the kinesthetic qualities of the activity; the movements of my body, the amount of leverage needed to lift the pieces of wood with each hand into a wheelbarrow, judging the capacity of the wheelbarrow and my capacity to move it, the relative inflation of the tire which was under-inflated and inhibited the ease of movement, the muscles needed in the variety of actions from bending to lifting to throwing to rolling the wheelbarrow to dumping it to re-lifting and stacking each piece into a stack measuring approximately 4' x 4' x 8'.

I also considered the amount of energy used in the entire arc of this process; from felling the trees, cutting the logs to length (between 18" and 24"), splitting them, transporting them from the woods to a location for sale, loading them to transport, transporting them to my home, unloading them into my driveway and moving and stacking them, then the eventual restacking them in my basement, then bringing them in small quantities up into the house and then burning them for heat/entertainment. I have absolutely no metric to judge this transfer of energy. It seems an inordinate amount of energy transfer to create a contained moment of fire and heat for comfort and pleasure.

Once the stack was completed and the wood moved approximately thirty feet from its original location, I covered it with a tarp. After completing the task I realized I was soaking wet from the rain and the amount of body heat I was generating was creating a cloud of steam rising off of my clothes, fogging my glasses, prohibiting me from seeing anything and insulating me from what was around me.

dragged out

"GENE!

I appreciate the call jason gave in regards to my whereabouts and safety. I am okay. I feel if I responded immediately to him I would have lost some of the intent of my performance. So I'm emailing you now to let you know that it was in fact a performance- in having to explain that it was, I feel successful in the intent behind what happened tonight. In saying that- WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP THE FREAK DRAGGING ME OUT OF THE ROOM ;) just kidding-

Hope we discuss it more on Tuesday :)

-Corinne"

RUMRILL's response...

Robert Rumrill
Lecture response

I thought the work of Daniel Bozhkov was fairly interesting. Moreso than the actual outcome and messages of his pieces, I enjoyed the means in which his pieces became complete. It was astounding how the only way his pieces could come to fruition was through countless hours of apprenticeship. Coming in to a project completely devoid of the knowledge needed to complete it is a problem all artists encounter, but Bozhkov definitely uses that to his aesthetic advantage. He de-elevates himself from “famous artist” to “common laborer” in order to boost himself to become even more of a “famous artist.” Of everything he presented, I found the perfume piece to be the most entertaining. I think I liked it the most because he was using his common tactic of infiltrating a niche profession, but in this piece he purchased ad space on television in order to confuse an even wider audience. The other ones struck me as too pinpointed to create a real mass impact. It is apparent, though, that this is an intention of Bozhkov, and these little worlds are ones he feels are worth exploring. I really liked how he didn’t even seem to like it when his art was brought to the attention of the media, such as his “learn to fly with a very large larry” piece. However, it would bug me if some guy from “Friends” was not getting my artistic point, too. I can see where he’s coming from.

My first and strongest reaction to Bozkhov's presentation is a simultaneous distaste and appreciation of the very banal quality both his work and character exude. Rather than embrace the more common role of artist as creator, Bozkhov has chosen to embrace what is already there: systems, symbols and ideas that are a product of modern life, and not with any intended "artistic value." Furthermore, the manner in which he embraces often does not seek to present what he finds in a way that tries to reach beyond the everyday quality of things. Bozkhov often resembles an anthropologist or scientist in the way that he documents and treats his subjects so objectively.
(to be continued!)

Bozkov and postmoderism

In considering how to approach a discussion on Bozhkov's presentation, it occurred to me how stunningly complex his works are. Each individual piece includes a number of different elements and threads that connect and work together in various ways. In this way his work relates strongly to some of the ideas discussed in regards to postmodernism - many different concepts and mediums are employed by Bozhkov in the spectrum of art he presented, as well as in each individual work. The Wal-Mart greeter was very much conceptual and performative while also including video and the traditional medium of fresco. The Turkish pretzel piece included performance, video, and a local traditional craft into which the artist injected his own sculpture, related to the earlier work with his mother's language. "Learning to Fly over Very Large Larry" used crop circle as a medium to show Larry's face, had a strong performance aspect, and was followed by an installation detailing not only the art itself, but the media's response, details on the actual plants involved in creating the face, and custom-designed furniture. Each of these elements reenforces the others, resulting in expansive works that often take on lives of their own (as with the media response to 'Very Large Larry') or lend themselves well to expansion in the future (as was done with the creation of large amounts of yogurt after the initial gene-lab experiment, or continued selling and marketing of the Ernest Hemingway cologne). Bozhkov embraces and includes any concept, medium, or style that will enhance his current pursuit, and in doing so creates works that very much fall under the umbrella of "post-modern."

One of the common threads in all of the pieces he presented was that each included a performance aspect that was either separate from or resulted in the final product (reminding me of Mark Dion's installations). He as the artist was actively engaged, with the demonstration of the process being part of the work. When the process was complete there remained some sort of product, which was either a work of art in a traditional sense (painting, sculpture), a marketable product (cologne, pretzels), or photographic and video evidence, provided by the artist and/or the media. In some works, the performance itself lives on, such as with the continued production the new pretzel designs by a single baker in Turkey.

Play and Ritual in Bozhkov's Works

After viewing Daniel Bozhkov’s presentation it seemed that a lot of his work is focused on elements of social interaction both with those that he encounters throughout the course of his performance or activities and through those that he reaches through his use of various forms of presentations, media, and distribution. In addition to, or as a result of these interactions several different aspects of ritual and play become involved. With his work involving the making of pretzels in Bulgaria and his interest in the language of the country in connection with his mother’s use of aging terms, Bozhkov explores different rituals, traditions and processes of the Bulgarian culture. His choice to do a work involving this particular source of food demonstrates his intention to investigate and modify a ritual that is so ingrained in the everyday culture and shows that through his involvement in the creation of this food he intended to use it as a platform for his research and for his presentation of his ideas toward the culture. The video that was displayed showed how he had to learn the traditional technique of making the pretzels and how he approached making the different pretzel shapes from the words that he chose from his mother, therefore exploring the use of language within the area and the shift in meaning of words and terms in a language as generations pass. He applied a similar subtle to change to the pretzels that he made and presented them by selling the pretzels in the normal way that they are sold in that city.

In terms of play it seemed that many of his works had a humorous aspect to them particularly the Hemingway perfume and the DNA yogurt, which turned the process and presentation of these products into a performance. With both of these works Bozhkov demonstrated the process from the beginning idea to the finished product and to the distribution of this product or object to the public, presenting the different steps that are taken from the various aspects of assembly to different means of sale to the customer. By producing these seemingly absurd items according to these common rules of production Bozhkov turned this process into a game where he both follows the rules while simultaneously subverting them by making bizarre or eccentric objects and by using the black market and on the street sale, all of which go against the typical ways of creating and distributing a product.

joe + 10/22

I saw the acts that took place 10/22 as more of an installation than a performance. The entertainment from that evening was more in the idea of the performance and the conflicting emotions it created than actually enduring the entire thing. In regards to Devin’s performance, I thought he did a phenomenal job of sticking to his guns and completing a goal by any means necessary. The real fun of his piece was the process in which we learned what that particular goal was. As always, fear played a big part of the night, and questions filled my mind. What makes the horn sound? What did these words mean? What if he doesn’t use the horn? Am I allowed to move? What if the horn makes a really dinky noise, and I’m fretting over nothing? At first I thought Devin was only reading single syllable words, but about thirty minutes in I heard the word “besides”, and thought that he was going to add syllables a time progressed. This reminded me of gradual processes in the arts. Devin’s research topic involves an artist whose work was primarily based over long stretches of time, so I knew that his piece was going to take the entire class/book/patience of the class, and inferring that from early on really let me focus on the reactions of everyone else. It seemed that those who knew Devin the closest felt the least need to stay in their seats. I left after both Daryl and Jason exited. It seemed to me (at the time) that Gene was staying because he was either giddily entertained (or was simply “being the teacher”), Seth was staying out of courtesy, and Corinne was next in line to do her piece. I thought it strange that those who interact with him on a more regular basis were the most comfortable leaving the room.
The simultaneity of performance was a treat, and reminded me of a Cage musiccircus, where many Cage pieces are performed in the same space at the same time. I really liked that Devin’s piece affected mostly my mind (focusing on when that horn was coming), Daryl’s piece was affecting my ears (with describing her dreams and nightmares), and Corinne’s piece was affecting mostly my vision (the brightly colored pumpkin gunk going everywhere) This all created its own unique environment, and is where I started viewing it more as an installation. A room where lots of stuff was happening, but it was easy to pay attention to all of it, due to the nature of each of the respective performances. I think Daryl’s and Corinne’s performances also amplified Devin’s steadfast commitment to see his piece through, and it was good that he didn’t view them as interruptions, but rather as inevitabilities.
I really like how Devin’s performance was even more effective once no one was left in the audience. It’s one thing to do what he did to the end of the class time, but from what I heard, he did it until he couldn’t physically do it any longer. Hitting the hay that night was made much more interesting thinking about whether Devin was still reading that book aloud in a dark art school, with his airhorn by his side. It’s not every day that we get to experience a piece that continues being an experience until the next day or some days after that. I think that the situation caused some interesting reactions from those involved, and I hope that more classes can have the story arc this one did.

NYC performance

Action: For the time I was in NYC, October 30, 2009, I deliberately positioned myself in the path of people texting while walking on the streets, in galleries, museums, stores and in the subway.

THIS AMERICAN LIFE EPISODES I MENTIONED

simulation:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=791

hands on a hard body:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=62