A to Z

A while back John and I were discussing the possibilities of "quieter" performances, which may reveal themselves later.  We talked about me writing letters with my tongue on something, and maybe that would read as something at the end.

Well I didn't do that, not really I guess.  I was interested in the concept of writing letters with my tongue and the associations that that holds, applying it to the book, and seeing where it takes me.  It's definitely follows the other book licking performance that I've done, and while I feel that that one is compelling, this has another kind of thing going on with it.

I used this old art history glossary From Abacus to Zeus, and drew out the letters of that page, so if I were on a page defining pagodas and post and lintel, I would write Pp with my tongue somewhere on that page.

Watching it back is sort of strange, because the licking is not just random, but is also difficult to parse.  Plus the associations with writing the alphabet with the tongue and oral sex is really interesting/odd.  Is this some unexpected result of deep intimacy with our own language?  Does this association exist within other cultures whose writing systems are very different from English. The whole thing has the tinge of amateur exhibitionist porn.  The random talking an background noise of the studio makes it feel really public.  I felt that while I was performing, because it was not a typical performance situation, where it is known that something out of the ordinary may happen, I was doing this in my studio while everyone else worked, or walked around, I felt on edge the entire time, like I was going to be caught which feels appropriate for the piece.  I'm interested in exploring this further, but at the same time I'm wondering about the meaning an longevity of these book fetish pieces.  I think I need to just write a bit extensively about them to really begin to nail them down.



P.S. I uploaded all of my full length videos to youtube, they're right here.  John, maybe you could add it to the resources on the blog.