As a process-based artist my work on this project goes beyond what is revealed in one night at The Washington Center. The 40 days of labyrinth making documented on the website was a contemplative practice undertaken to enter into a dialogue with the labyrinth form, with the sacrament of communion, and to focus intention for the installation. This process has yielded creative elements that were employed in the installation that hold a distinctly more serene feeling than the installation itself, which had the intensity of 25 years condensed into “One Night Only,” and the edginess of experimental video and the Black Box venue.
Labyrinth Monitor
The installation at the Washington Center was a three-dimensional autobiographic labyrinth created with objects – personal artifacts like film reels will be stacked to define the ‘walls’ of the labyrinth along with items like toys, hard drives, video tapes and video tape cases, and u-haul boxes that have been with me so long they’ve nearly reached the status of pets. The walls varied in height and material, always enough to define the path. I suspended some objects like a few choice, now-vintage clothing items and accessories – a red velvet, glitter-rock era suit and circa 1972 – and featured my cherished platform shoes from the same era. Preceding the entrance to the labyrinth was a path draped with 40 rice-
Labyrinth Prayer Flags
paper flags each with an image from the 40-day practice. After the flags and before the labyrinth entrance was another passage, a vestibule lit by 4 video monitors, 3 featuring contemplative pieces produced from the 40 day practice, and one live-shot of the labyrinth in real time.
Labyrinth Entrance View
The labyrinth was illuminated by 12 monitors of original video art created from rescanned and manipulated footage of my old TV newsmagazine segments intercut with abstracted material collected during the 40 days of labyrinth-making, and scored by a sonic mix of channeled psychic readings, extracted clips from my past life as 1980s TV personality, and atmospheric tracks of ocean air and laughter.
