The Parenthetic View, 2008

The Parenthetic View performance video works in conjunction with re-envisioned family photographs in a series titled Parenthetics. The title of this series is intended to reference the parenthetical meaning of our roles within our blood families. The re-envisioned photographs are to be viewed in digital format on high-resolution digital picture frames.

Performance of The Parenthetic View was performed on my 35th birthday at the Winnemucca Lake dry lakebed northeast of Reno, Nevada. The performance begins three days prior with a visit to my childhood barbershop. I had not been for a haircut at this barbershop in more than twenty years. The haircut was a childlike style with high trimmed neck and a shave over the ears. The barber used cream on both.

The wood for The Parenthetic View was gifted by my father, a lifelong woodsman, for the purpose of the performance. In The Parenthetic View, this wood is split by axe into quarters. The four quarters reference each member of my blood family. The wood is then reassembled into an idea of its prior state. It is then bound together with red leather cord. This new assemblage is my new vision of my blood family 21 years after our divorce. The four members of my blood family are referred by name as: The Chopper (my father), The Counsel (my mother), Communion (my sister), and The Son (myself). One large white bloom is placed into the center of the reassembled log memorializing this new vision..

About the costume:
In my blue pin striped suit and blood red button up shirt, I am the tailored embodiment of The Son. I wear this costume to indicate the formality of the role. My combat boots indicate that I am also a soldier, fighting through the challenging task of splitting and re-envisioning the blood family into a new context...More