transubstantial phenomena

The idea of Transubstantial Phenomena first became a stated concern of mine in 1998 or 99, at which time I cast the "E" form featured in the assemblage documented above (assemblage dated 2005).  Along with the casting of the form (which I titled "Transubstantiative Totem" and kept with me at all times for the month following its creation) I started writing sporadically on the ideas behind the piece- a practice that continues to this day.  I have also continued to use the "E" in various exhibitions, performances, and in non-art contexts on a quite frequent basis.

RED NOTEBOOK p5:

"The Transubstantial or Transubstantiative Phenomenon finds precedent in such Biblical tales as the Old Testament account of Elijah taken to heaven in a flaming chariot; or in the New Testament: Christ described as an idea enrobed as human: 'the Word made Flesh.'

"The concept appears in fairy tale, as when Cindarella's fervent yet hopeless pleas for emancipation from her life's ugly lot manifests in physical personage as a fairy godmother who in turn continues the process: pumpkin becomes carriage, tattered rags are transformed, in extravagant fashion, into extravagant fashion.

"Contemporary scientific endeavor too has its own examples:

-a quantum body is photographed in two or more positions in space at the same moment in time

-an experiment's outcome is affected by the nonlocal WILL of the participants

-light becomes either wave or particle based on what the experimenter WANTS it to be

"Transubstantiative Phenomena are taking place."

 

Durational Aesthetics- travelling in time

RED NOTEBOOK, p4

"One might be tempted to think upon the idea of Time Travel as a process of bodily movement from one point on a line segment to another at a rate or in a 'direction' other than that afforded one by nature.  But if, as some suggest, time is not 'shaped' like a line but like a tree, or a spiral, or a stream, or a weaving, or a crumpled up piece of paper, or boiling water, and if we would be better served in speaking of Durations rather than Directions 

(ie- "point me in the right duration")

then perhaps it might behoove us to dream up some other possible schemata/ definitions of what it is to be

TRAVELLING IN TIME"

the poetics of absurdity

The idea of the shows comprising some sort of time travel functionality was not originally my intention, but as I thought more on the idea, my interests in both science and science fiction began to show.

RED NOTEBOOK p3:

"WHY IS IT NECESSARY TO HAVE TWO SHOWS IN ONE (AGAIN)?

1) The mock heroic overtones of "going above and beyond"- doing twice as much as the next guy. A showmanship based on unnecessary excesses. Working twice as hard as the last guy, though the "work" might be anything but.

2) Beyond the cheap hype factor of (1) there is a concern for the general dynamics of utilizing entire exhibitions as implements in a larger work or process. The very question- 'WHY?' opens onto a fertile garden of conjecture.

3) Utilizing the conceptual dynamics of (2) in a temporal fashion begins to poke hopefully toward a speculative model for TIME TRAVEL. The viewer of 'Exhibit B' will become a test subject in the possibility of collapsed dimensionalities- a collapse fueled by the poetics of absurdity!"

illustrations

TOP:student work from a public art project I facilitated around the same time I started on the TT(P)
BOTTOM: a sculpture of mine made concurrently

initial urges

I first began the Time Travel Process [TT(P)] project in the summer of 2008. I was living in St. Louis, MO, where I had been cavorting on the banks of the Mississippi for a number of years. But I was preparing to move to Los Angeles in the Fall of that year, and as I divested myself of belongings both cherished and inconsequential, my mind was filling up with plans for the future.

Red Notebook [RN], pages 1 and 2:

"for exhibition in Los Angeles...

'INSTANT INSTINCT' or 'INSTANT QUALIFIER'
or 'INSTINCT QUALIFIER' or
'INSTINCTUAL QUALIFIER'

Penetralia Doubloon?

"Whereas the 2007 exhibitions 'Relics, Rimjobs, Robbery, Resonance...' and 'DREAM WARFARE 3' tackled the concept of the 'Double Opening' spacially: by staging two seperate shows simultaneously in two galleries across the street from one another, I now propose to investigate this simultaneity of exhibitions in a more directly TEMPORAL fashion. I propose to first install one complete exhibition of objects and/or images in the alloted space, then photograph it robustly. I will then deinstall it and replace it with a second body of work, which will be partially comprised of paintings or drawings, in fairly large format, based on the documentary photographs of the first set of artworks.

"How will the development of the first exhibition be marked by my foreknowledge of its hidden existence? Will I choose objects and materials with a regard for their photogenic possibilities? Will I arrange them with an eye toward their intended mediation?

"The intended consumption of the first set of artworks is not through live interaction by gallery goers but rather through the viewing of interpretive "records" of the pieces, twice removed from the original objects (object > photo > painting). Yet I want the installation to remain complete in itself, though very few will actually experience it in this form. Simply arranging things as if for still life is not at all what I wish to do. I want the paintings to function as windows into the past, albeit panes that filter the light in such a way that the views are tinted- distorted and 'drastically yet subliminally altered'"

Introduction

In the summer of 2008 I began a line of artistic inquiry into the nature of Time as biological function and social construct. Much of the resulting material has taken the form of notes, poems, schematics, and sketches which are loosely collected in what I think of as "red notebook" and "yellow notebook" (though in actuality the material is jumbled and spread throughout several sketchbooks, notebooks, boxes, and recordings). More recently (beginning summer '09) I have started rendering my "findings" in a range of media, including sculpture, drawing, painting, video, song, and live action.

In an attempt to clarify and better collect my thoughts and progress, and to share such with a wider audience, I will be archiving here both my notes thus far and my continuing work with the concepts and material.