Mascaron de Proa Perfomance

(Artist as explorer/intrepid correspondent)

Performed in the installation Mascaron de Proa, 1996

There is a man in a suit and tie, but no pants, sitting in the chair of the "bowsprit".  The image of his face recorded by the camera in front of him plays on one of the video monitors on the mezzanine.  There is a woman in a white lab coat sitting on the stool in the "crow's nest".  Her head is obscured by a white canvas curtain.  They are connected by voice-activated radio that only they can hear.  The artist stands on a ladder attached to the wall below the mezzanine, naked except for a hood and welding glasses, a backpack with radio equipment and video transmitters, stopwatch, holding an electric lantern.  On a belt below his backpack is a video camera mounted on a gimble facing behind him. The dark and shaky image from this camera is transmitted to the other video monitor up on the mezzanine.  As the performance begins, the artist descends the ladder below the photographic panels and begins to explore the area below, while narrating his actions by radio to the woman sitting in the "crow's nest".  She translates what she hears into Spanish.  The man on the bowsprit hears her translation (by radio), translates it back into English and announces it to the camera in front of him.  The audience, which can move about at will, can hear any or all of the three versions of the narrative, can see a "talking head" version on one monitor, and the "butt-cam" version of things on another monitor. They can look over the railing and miss the video or descend the stairs and miss all of the activity above but watch the activity below.  There are no dominant viewpoints; all are fragmentary.