9 to 5 (Gear Installation #5) - Graduate Show Performance
For the ECA Graduate Show I will be conducting an extended performance piece titled 9 to 5, this will be the 5th work in my Gear Installation Series which began back in 2019.
For this performance a set of large plaster cast gears will be mounted to a table and turned. As they grind and eventually break the broken gears will be crushed by a hammer and ground back into plaster dust. The intention of the piece is highlight the contrast between process and product. Modern evaluation of art is normally centered around the ultimate product. In 9 to 5, there is no product to evaluate, rather the process is the product of the work.
As the performer, I will be in each day from the hours of 9AM to 5PM (the standard ‘work’ day) to turn, break, crush, and grind the gears.
I have been developing a system of casting functional, hand made plaster gears for the past three years in my artistic practice (mainly to focus on blurring the boundaries between mechanical and human function). As an installation within this gear series, 9 to 5 elevates the art object this research has produced (the plaster cast gears) and presents them in a conceptual piece to address current understanding of labour in the 'traditional work force' as opposed to creative practices.
The idea to present circular or cyclical motion as a metaphor for labour was partially inspired through a particular passage in Albert Camus's Myth of Sisyphus which reads:
“All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurants revolving door. So it is with absurdity. The absurd world more than others derives its nobility from that abject birth. In certain situations, replying ‘nothing’ when asked what one is thinking about may be pretence in a man. Those who are loved are well aware of this. But oif the reply is sincere, if it symbolizes that odd state of soul in which the void becomes eloquent, in which the chain of daily gestures is broken, in which the heart vainly seeks the link that will connect it again, then it is as it were the first sign of absurdity.
It happens that the stage-sets collapse. Rising, tram, four hours in the office or factory, meal, tram, four hours of work, meal, sleep and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, according to the same rhythm – this path is easily followed most of the time. But one day the ‘why’ arises and everything begins in that weariness tinged with amazement. ‘Begins’ – this is important. Weariness comes at the end of the acts of a mechanical life, but at the same time it inaugurated the impulse of consciousness. It awakens consciousness and provokes what follows. What follows is the gradual return to the chain or it is the definitive awakening. At the end of the awakening comes, in time, the consequence: suicide or recovery. In itself weariness has something sickening about it. Here, I must conclude that it is good. For everything begins with consciousness and nothing is worth anything except through it.’
As 9 to 5 is an accumulative performative, the work space will also include admin documents to indicate the progress which has been made. 'Gear Tracking Matrix' provides stock information on the gears (including the date each was made, added to the gear table, broken, crushed, and ground). In addition the 'Time Sheet' provide a total for the amount of work hours put into the collective system.
The videos below shows film clips from Gear Installation #1 and Gear Installation #4. Both of these installations helped shape the construction and content of 9 to 5.
As this is a performative piece, I encourage all to come and witness the work in person. I will be happy to speak to any viewers (provided I am not behind my grind deadline).
