Lessons, Installation
My work is nothing if not repetitive… and that’s a positive thing. Repeating actions or scenarios allows me to experience and analyze the connected layers of anxiety and emotions I’ve built up over time. There is a naming technique that has been an integral part of my mindfulness practice. To implement this technique you simply watch as your mind runs down your train of thought and label each parcel appropriately. If a sad memory comes forward, you call it what it is, sorrow, and let it go. If you remember how somebody cut you off in traffic that morning you call that anger or noncompassion, and let it go. In a very similar way, re-creating experiences allows me another opportunity to label these things, which in turn disarms them so that I can then let them go. Watching your video art production we had the impression that there's a subtle irony: in your opinion is this just an impression? It’s definitely not just an impression.
Irony,
whether subtle or not, is a big source of material for me. Sometimes it comes in the form of confusion, other times with humor, and still others with no small amount of concern. I’ve also come across instances where all of these are present and more. Irony, confusion, anxiety… these are my playgrounds. You are not only a videoartist, and it would be unfair to use the label of "multi-disciplinary" artist, since every medium you use is pervaded by a strong effort to interactivity. In what manner does your work as a performer influence your video making? I’m a dabbler when it comes to performance. I don’t set out to make a performance but there are just things that can’t happen any other way for me. By taking either a role or a non-role, which is to say I’m able to leave myself behind, I can separate the act of performing from the experience of the performance. That sounds a bit strange to see written out but it’s entirely accurate.