Bring Your Body with You
Bring Your Body with You was the culminating exhibition, concluding a four month residency at Recology in San Francisco in 2017. Using only materials sourced from the public disposal area, the work continues the exploration of embodiment and our relations to objects. Below is the press release for the show...
"It is possible that during his residency Erik Scollon has walked 26.2 miles in the studio, literally completing a marathon to create his artwork. He has used his phone’s tracking software to arrive at this number, with the underlying idea being that process and physical experience are key in the work. His residency project is rooted in the theoretical ideas of Maurice Merleau-Ponty who emphasized the role of the body, instead of the mind, in human perception. As the title of Scollon’s exhibition suggests, he asks the public to also engage physically to fully experience his art.
Like his studio-mate, Cathy Lu, Scollon is a ceramic artist, but has made new objects and environments from non-clay materials during his residency, including from VHS tapes of movies (everything from Blockbuster rental tapes to home-recorded compilations) and uniforms from a defunct startup. He researched the craft of rope-making, creating versions in varying gages and lengths out of videotape. He also uses the material to construct large curtains the public can walk between or through. The idea that this might place viewers in close proximity to one another, and in direct contact with the piece, is central to the work, reminding us that there can always be a physical aspect to the consumption of media and popular culture—be it sitting next to a stranger in a movie theater or handling a videotape. Behind the curtains, a large monitor presents a scrolling string of text—the titles of all the films on the VHS tapes used—immersing visitors visually, as well as tactilely, in the work. Inflatable soft sculpture, made from the bright blue jackets of a former tech company, will be let loose in the studio yard for some hands-on, possibly cathartic, fun."
To Look at an Object is to Plunge Oneself Into It, 2017
VHS tape, wire, grommets
26.2 miles worth of VHS tape, strung out from 301 movies, fashioned into curtains. For a full list of the movies, see the accompanying video “Oblique and Autonomous."
To Look at an Object is to Plunge Oneself Into It, 2017, 26.2 miles of VHS tape fashioned into eight curtains, wire, grommets
in the back, The Other and I, 2017, Sound responsive disco light, wood, screws
To Look at an Object is to Plunge Oneself Into It, 2017, 26.2 miles of VHS tape fashioned into eight curtains, wire, grommets
Various rope studies from left to right
Inch by Inch, 2017, Rope study made from the VHS recording of the eponymous 1985 film.
Mixed Index, 2017, Collected index cards found in various VHS tape cases.
Rope Walk/ Walk Man, 2017, A rope study made from 27 Audio tape albums which required 1.2 miles worth of walking in the studio, as tracked on the artist’s iphone based walking app.
The Midnight Sun, 2017, VHS tape twine ball made from ten video tapes discarded from the Castro video bar.
Not Suitable for Viewing By Minors, 2017, The magnetic data stripped off from Falcon compilation video , numbers 646 through 650.
Rope Walk/ Walk Man, 2017
Rope study made from 27 Audio tape albums which required 1.2 miles worth of walking in the studio, as tracked on the artist’s iphone based walking app.
Colton Variations, 2017. VHS tape, plexiglass, wood.
Thread, string and rope studies made from the 2002 video “Colton” starring Colton Ford.
Tug, 2017 . VHS tape, wood, paint
A four part braided rope made from four muscle themed gay porn movies recorded on VHS. Each movie was first strung into threads and the threads were then combined and then braided into rope.
Urn, 2017 . Magnetic information stripped off of plastic VHS tape, glass jar, wood
The magnetic recording was stripped rom the found video tape “50th Wedding Anniversary - Edgar and Alice- May 1951- May, 2001- Four sons, three daughters-in-law, ten grandchildren, Fifty years.”
The Other and I, 2017. Sound responsive disco light, wood, screws
Of One Single Intercorporeality, 2017, Led lights, wood, screws
Oblique and Autonomous (language is), 2017, 8:00 minute video, flat screen monitor, wood
All 301 titles included in To Look at an Object is to Plunge Oneself Into It, scrolling in random order.
If This World is a Poem, 2017, Fabric, air
The discarded windbreakers from the app based valet parking start up LUXE, are disassembled and reassembled into an interactive inflatable. The large shape will randomly be filled up and then allowed to deflate until it is just a puddle on the ground.