Biometrics
Video, 06:15. View now on Vimeo.
Over the years I have wrestled with the relationship between creativity and productivity. Sometimes they are antagonistic, sometimes complementary, but for me, they have always remained somehow separate. This has led me to become concerned with notions efficiency. Growing up in New York City and attending highly competitive schools, I have always felt an immense pressure to do everything as quickly as possible, even things that require patience, care, inspiration, slowness, space, or depth. In this I feel I have two sides at war with each other. One is guided by fear - of loss, of scarcity, of abandonment - and the other is guided by love - that romantic curiosity, fulfillment, and presence we can gain in great art.
The biometrics series started with breath sculptures - small clay self-portraits I made in the span of single breath. I would obsessively measure how long I could hold my breath, and each small sculpture had the amount of time it took to make etched on its back. I moved on to make other efficiency sculptures, drawings, and performances. The third in the biometrics series, this video includes documentation from a performative drawing in which, with ink and a repurposed kitchen sponge, I drew the longest line possible in the span of a single breath. Biometrics 3 expands on the the meaning and direction of this performance by repeating the video six times and cutting intermittently to intimate yet precarious scenes of a makeshift family outing at the beach.
The biometrics series started with breath sculptures - small clay self-portraits I made in the span of single breath. I would obsessively measure how long I could hold my breath, and each small sculpture had the amount of time it took to make etched on its back. I moved on to make other efficiency sculptures, drawings, and performances. The third in the biometrics series, this video includes documentation from a performative drawing in which, with ink and a repurposed kitchen sponge, I drew the longest line possible in the span of a single breath. Biometrics 3 expands on the the meaning and direction of this performance by repeating the video six times and cutting intermittently to intimate yet precarious scenes of a makeshift family outing at the beach.