Chasing Shadows, was a site specific performance exhibition at The Onion (The Church of the Sepulveda Unitarian Universalist Society), North Hills, CA. The exhibition was based on the 1935 Horace McCoy novel They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? This novel, subsequently became a 1969 film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Jane Fonda. The story is loosely based on the grueling dance marathons that took place in Santa Monica Pier at the height of The Great Depression.
I created a performance using my father’s metronome that he used to compose music with, setting the tempo to The Dorsey Brother’s song Chasing Shadows 1935. Chasing Shadows was the number one song on the music charts during The Great Depression. I taped a small piece of charcoal to the top of the pendulum and stood over it with a piece of paper while the metronome swung back and forth making marks on the paper. A small speaker with two microphones were hooked up at my waist weight to reverberate the sound throughout the space. The performance lasted about 20 minutes.
Pops I Keeping the Tempo, 1941-2011-2053, Cycles, Patterns, Mark Making and pathways (tempo set to The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, Chasing Shadows, 1935), is a narrative about bodily endurance, music, history of the depression, and also my family history in that the title marks the life of my father 1941-2011 and predicting my own subsequent death in 2053, 70 years which is the same as my father.
More Info:
Date: December 11th, 2011 Los Angeles, CA
Medium: Drawing | Archive | Performance | Music | Performative
Amp speaker, two microphones, metronome, charcol, 8" x 10" paper, Charcoal and tray, dimensions variable
Listen to the song
