the installation “mir (we need to say goodbye)” consisted of a multi-channel sound work and several small drawings done in white pencil on black paper. the installation was presented at studio 5 beekman in new york, in 2000. it was one of my earliest works combining sound and drawings.
here is the statement i wrote for the show:
the piece was inspired by four things i happened to stumble upon at the same time:
a newspaper article on the demise of the russian space station ‘mir’, the death of robert bresson, the writings of thomas merton, and a 1950’s kid’s book on satellites.
the drawings use these things as structural starting points – as well as meeting points through a game of association. all of the drawings are based on photos of mir, as well as images of early satellites. the text in the drawings comes from the article on mir’s demise, the writings of merton, and the dialogue from several bresson films.
somehow the demise of mir – this empty vessel that once signified the glory of man’s attempted conquests of space that is being left to float endlessly within the blackness of space until it disappears, seemed to relate strongly with bresson’s death – and how his films also contain a kind of emptiness (and certainly, how can one not see a floating empty vessel as a clear metaphor for death itself).
merton’s writings fit into the equation simply because of timing – i was reading his diaries while i came across the mir article around the time bresson died. merton’s constant searching as well as the attempt at an emptied/full life of a trappist monk – all seemed as well to fit the idea of floating silent emptiness – as if all 3 were orbiting something: be it a planet, a quest, or an idea.
the sound piece, created using processed sounds of a microphone flying through the air, reflects the lines i have drawn between these things – a kind of intimate, floating, solitude.
my interest is not in the clear presentation of material that influences me, but an attempt to use this information physically as a presence, as well as inspirational fuel towards the making of artworks. their influence is felt in intuitive movements, as well as through the fragments of their physical presence.