- Extraction (1) (2) Installation with wood, porcelain, found objects, video projection, sound. 2010. 12ft x 25ft x 10ft. Extraction (1) and (2) incorporated layers of materials and performances to critically examine the practice of pulling teeth with a slamming door. Approximately 1 in 10 adults have violently lost a tooth to this common ritual, and I paralleled the act of a tooth being removed from a body, as a body can be removed from a home. Wooden cabinets, crafted to resemble German Curio Cabinets, held dangling porcelain teeth. The boxes rotated and spun, bumping and eerily jingling the teeth inside. A video was projected through the boxes, creating shadows and movement. The obscured video displayed a close up of my mouth. I individually tied each of my teeth with red string. Once the string was tied, a loud sound of a door slamming echoes through the space. The viewers entered the room through an open door, referring to the ritual. During Extraction (2), I stood in the gallery for three, 30-minute intervals with my front tooth tied to the door. The sound of a door slamming occasionally shook the room, and my body reacted to the sound. Viewers could interact with the door, and the implied vulnerability of my body brought about connotations beyond the tooth pulling.
- Mar 25th, 2012
- (6:09 PM)
- in “General”