Time Passes

BPA 1982 Short-Works copy

poster for Boston Performance Artists Short Works

Time Passes

Time Passes

A collaboration with Bob Raymond on the fragility of the present moment, of documentation, of memory.

event:
Boston Performance Artists 'Short Works'
venue:
Boston Film/Video Foundation
location:
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
sponsor:
Boston Performance Artists
date:
October 1982

Project Notes:

This is a performance for which we specifically requested that no photo or video documentation be made.  That caused some dismay, but we insisted on it, and eventually the organizers agreed not to document the work.

In advance of the performance, I had commissioned a glass artist at Mass College of Art to make a hand-blown clear glass bell.  He knew what I intended to do with it.

The performance began with me standing at a small table, covered with a black velvet cloth.  It was lit by a single overhead light.  On the table was the bell, which sparkled in the light.  There was also a large rock on the table, and a pair of scissors.

Bob was videotaping the action, standing quite close to me so that details were recorded.

I held up the bell, showing it to the audience.  I told them about meeting with the artist and talking about what I wanted, and seeing the glass-blowing studio.  Then began to ring it.  The sound was beautiful; a clear tone that reverberated throughout the space.  I turned it in the light so that reflections moved around the room.

Once everyone had listened to the ringing, I set the bell down on the table.  And then I smashed it with the rock.  There was a gasp in the audience.

Bob transferred the video cassette to a player, and I carried a small television in my arms, with him behind me carrying the deck, and we showed the video that he had shot to everyone in the audience.  The images were lush, close-up shots of the bell, of my arm and hand holding it in the light, my face behind it.  It was beautifully shot, evocative.

We returned to the table, and Bob removed the tape from the player.  I began to unreel the tape, and taking the scissors, I began to cut the videotape into very small pieces that flickered in the light as they fell to the floor.

There was a division in the audience.  Half of them were very distressed that we had destroyed the bell.  The other half were upset that we had destroyed the documentation.