Saturday, April 24, 2010

Endurance performance: Illusion





For 3 hours, 8-11am, I designated my time soley to the task of constructing a wall out of the materials in Canakadea River. I had no idea how how tall this building would end up being and it's exact aesthetics. I picked rocks up of all varying sizes, including one that was too large and ended up causing me an injury during the performance. The process was extensive, repetitive, and physically exhausting.
My intentions was the solidify myself into the illusion of being alone; creating an environment untouched by any human influence. Through the creation of a stone wall, an organic separation was being created between the Alfred University institution and myself in the river. As I carried up rocks, I placed human made items (rappers, wire, terracotta bricks) in front of the wall to keep it out of the illusion I was creating and maintaining.
The difficulties in this endurance performance were hydration, extensive physical exhaustion, and injuries from falling rocks being transported to higher levels. At 9:30am, I had obtained a rock that was quite large and dense. Upon placing it on higher elevations as I climbed up the tree, it fell ontop of me and my fingers were cut quite deep around the nail and down the finger. I continued, compromised by the limited use of my left hand, and had to switch to smaller rocks and started using wood found in the creek to use on the wall. Following the endurance performance at 11am I left and sought medical attention for the injuries.














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