WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.500
(slow instrumental music)

00:00:05.885 --> 00:00:08.601
(foot steps squeaking)

00:00:08.601 --> 00:00:11.268
(piano playing)

00:00:12.234 --> 00:00:17.234
(piano keys tapping) (metronome clicking)

00:00:17.601 --> 00:00:20.684
(instrumental music)

00:00:32.090 --> 00:00:34.500
- I don't make paintings,
and I don't make sculptures.

00:00:34.500 --> 00:00:39.000
What happens is that the things
that I make involve paint,

00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:43.110
and photography, drawing,
and also involve you know,

00:00:43.110 --> 00:00:46.170
materials: wood or metal, and so forth.

00:00:46.170 --> 00:00:49.980
To propose and develop concepts and ideas

00:00:49.980 --> 00:00:51.675
through the materials.

00:00:51.675 --> 00:00:53.010
(slow instrumental music)

00:00:53.010 --> 00:00:56.010
You can make art with any
number of kinds of materials,

00:00:56.010 --> 00:00:58.320
and you don't have to learn how to draw,

00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:01.326
and learn how to paint
in order to be an artist.

00:01:01.326 --> 00:01:04.409
(instrumental music)

00:01:05.730 --> 00:01:07.020
I was in a painting program

00:01:07.020 --> 00:01:09.300
and I discovered that the whole process

00:01:09.300 --> 00:01:12.120
of painting didn't hold
much meaning for me.

00:01:12.120 --> 00:01:13.710
There was an overwhelming sense

00:01:13.710 --> 00:01:15.900
that the whole thing is arbitrary.

00:01:15.900 --> 00:01:19.380
There was a perceived idea
that a work of art was made

00:01:19.380 --> 00:01:22.650
from your imagination
and from your intuition.

00:01:22.650 --> 00:01:25.380
I do believe that there is
such a thing as intuition

00:01:25.380 --> 00:01:28.200
and there is such thing
as as the imagination.

00:01:28.200 --> 00:01:29.242
I just think these are concepts

00:01:29.242 --> 00:01:32.790
that they're culturally realized.

00:01:32.790 --> 00:01:36.480
What we come to understand
is knowledge and meaning

00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:39.540
are not pure products of our genius,

00:01:39.540 --> 00:01:42.603
but are built into the
structure where we reside.

00:01:44.670 --> 00:01:47.220
So, I wanted to make a type
of work whose production

00:01:47.220 --> 00:01:51.360
is a consequence of a system,
rather than my imagination.

00:01:51.360 --> 00:01:52.920
The first piece I did like this is called,

00:01:52.920 --> 00:01:54.240
Walnut Tree Orchard.

00:01:54.240 --> 00:01:56.010
I photographed a series of walnut trees

00:01:56.010 --> 00:01:59.610
and converted the farm
into numbers on a grid.

00:01:59.610 --> 00:02:03.750
That silhouette was then
used to layer the shape

00:02:03.750 --> 00:02:05.450
of the trees on top of each other.

00:02:06.830 --> 00:02:08.640
(instrumental music)

00:02:08.640 --> 00:02:11.700
It also produces evidence
of the differences

00:02:11.700 --> 00:02:14.280
between those trees where
the forms don't align,

00:02:14.280 --> 00:02:18.630
and the system that I
use allows me to signify

00:02:18.630 --> 00:02:19.863
those changes.

00:02:27.312 --> 00:02:28.890
In a way, I'm trying to suggest

00:02:28.890 --> 00:02:30.930
that the kind of visual
difference that happens

00:02:30.930 --> 00:02:34.170
in the system operates the
same way that other concepts

00:02:34.170 --> 00:02:36.360
of difference happens in other domains:

00:02:36.360 --> 00:02:39.510
politics, gender
difference, race difference,

00:02:39.510 --> 00:02:40.590
class difference.

00:02:40.590 --> 00:02:44.430
In the drawings, we could
see that those differences

00:02:44.430 --> 00:02:47.040
are constructed by the system.

00:02:47.040 --> 00:02:49.620
And in the social and political domain,

00:02:49.620 --> 00:02:52.740
the differences that we
see are also constructed

00:02:52.740 --> 00:02:53.883
by a system.

00:02:55.920 --> 00:03:00.920
(inaudible conversation)
(instrumental scales)

00:03:05.182 --> 00:03:07.260
(classical music)

00:03:07.260 --> 00:03:08.790
- Manifestos is a
project I've been working

00:03:08.790 --> 00:03:09.933
on for several years.

00:03:11.443 --> 00:03:13.720
I select a political manifesto

00:03:14.910 --> 00:03:19.350
and I take that text and I
convert the letters in the text

00:03:19.350 --> 00:03:20.463
to musical notes.

00:03:22.680 --> 00:03:26.280
And that conversion is a simple
system where the letters A

00:03:26.280 --> 00:03:30.003
through G are converted
to the notes A through G.

00:03:33.390 --> 00:03:34.650
All the other letters in the text

00:03:34.650 --> 00:03:38.313
are then converted to a
silent beat or a rest.

00:03:39.176 --> 00:03:42.660
(classical flute plays)

00:03:42.660 --> 00:03:45.960
When you string a whole series
of words using the system

00:03:45.960 --> 00:03:50.043
then the translated letters
into notes then form a melody.

00:03:51.990 --> 00:03:54.000
One of the things I discovered in talking

00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:56.402
about these pieces, is
that people didn't believe

00:03:56.402 --> 00:03:59.100
that music was created by a random system.

00:03:59.100 --> 00:04:02.524
Because I use the diatonic
scale to do the translation

00:04:02.524 --> 00:04:06.075
and the scale is designed to be melodic.

00:04:06.075 --> 00:04:10.416
(classical music continues)

00:04:10.416 --> 00:04:13.166
(audience claps)

00:04:14.100 --> 00:04:16.071
This project, it's been 10 years

00:04:16.071 --> 00:04:19.590
from its beginning and
was a rollercoaster.

00:04:19.590 --> 00:04:21.540
Often, we didn't think
it was gonna happen,

00:04:21.540 --> 00:04:24.153
but somehow, finally, we're here.

00:04:25.260 --> 00:04:28.020
When I started the project,
the Black Lives Movement,

00:04:28.020 --> 00:04:29.730
Ferguson, started hitting the news

00:04:29.730 --> 00:04:34.170
and I wanted to explore the core

00:04:34.170 --> 00:04:38.103
or the problem that makes
these things persevere.

00:04:39.340 --> 00:04:42.923
(classical symphony music)

00:05:06.870 --> 00:05:10.920
This particular piece Manifestos Four

00:05:10.920 --> 00:05:13.500
we chose the Dred Scott decision,

00:05:13.500 --> 00:05:17.373
of the famous Supreme Court
decision for the text.

00:05:18.990 --> 00:05:21.780
Dred and Harriet Scott
were born into slavery

00:05:21.780 --> 00:05:24.180
and sued for their freedom

00:05:24.180 --> 00:05:27.420
and majority of opinion was
that, in order to file a suit,

00:05:27.420 --> 00:05:28.830
you have to be a citizen.

00:05:28.830 --> 00:05:31.440
And he said, it's impossible
for Dred and Harriet

00:05:31.440 --> 00:05:32.700
to become citizens

00:05:32.700 --> 00:05:34.050
because they're not white.

00:05:35.310 --> 00:05:38.220
Then there's a text that
comes from Fredrick Douglas's

00:05:38.220 --> 00:05:40.410
response to the Dred Scott decision.

00:05:40.410 --> 00:05:41.375
And so, I took a section of that

00:05:41.375 --> 00:05:44.121
and then arranged it for voice.

00:05:44.121 --> 00:05:49.114
♪ Loud and exultingly have we been told ♪

00:05:49.114 --> 00:05:54.114
♪ That the slavery question
is settled forever ♪

00:05:56.603 --> 00:05:58.470
- I think that the whole piece correlates

00:05:58.470 --> 00:06:00.540
so well with what's going
on in the present day.

00:06:00.540 --> 00:06:03.510
The same problems continue to exist.

00:06:03.510 --> 00:06:06.540
The legal system is based
upon a certain logic,

00:06:06.540 --> 00:06:08.101
a certain linguistic framing.

00:06:08.101 --> 00:06:10.110
(symphony and singing continues)

00:06:10.110 --> 00:06:14.520
You see how arbitrary the
law is in relationship

00:06:14.520 --> 00:06:16.350
to the lived experience of people

00:06:16.350 --> 00:06:18.405
who have to live by those laws.

00:06:18.405 --> 00:06:23.209
♪ We cannot change the essential nature ♪

00:06:23.209 --> 00:06:26.406
(classical symphony music continues)

00:06:26.406 --> 00:06:30.646
♪ The essential nature ♪

00:06:30.646 --> 00:06:35.396
♪ He cannot make evil good and good evil ♪

00:06:47.442 --> 00:06:50.609
(upbeat modern music)

00:06:54.480 --> 00:06:56.670
- I wanted to know what
vegetation life was

00:06:56.670 --> 00:06:59.520
in Times Square before the city was built.

00:06:59.520 --> 00:07:01.830
We found that one of the common plants

00:07:01.830 --> 00:07:03.087
was the sweet gum tree.

00:07:03.087 --> 00:07:07.087
(upbeat modern music continues)

00:07:09.300 --> 00:07:11.880
One of the characteristics
of capitalism is that

00:07:11.880 --> 00:07:14.133
it excavates, it moves
and takes things away.

00:07:15.060 --> 00:07:17.580
The appropriation of Native American land

00:07:17.580 --> 00:07:19.293
is a form of excavation,

00:07:20.130 --> 00:07:23.700
but Times Square is kind of the
broader trope of capitalism.

00:07:23.700 --> 00:07:25.050
So, my thought is that

00:07:25.050 --> 00:07:29.015
the upside down tree would
be a gesture to remind us

00:07:29.015 --> 00:07:31.230
that this site was produced

00:07:31.230 --> 00:07:33.753
as a consequence of
removing what was there.

00:07:39.500 --> 00:07:43.620
(mysterious symphony music)

00:07:43.620 --> 00:07:45.990
Moving Chains is one of several projects

00:07:45.990 --> 00:07:47.610
that makes up this commission.

00:07:47.610 --> 00:07:49.890
The dominant subject is
the history of slavery

00:07:49.890 --> 00:07:51.810
and the idea of the commodity.

00:07:51.810 --> 00:07:54.060
They're doing more before
the big sound test.

00:07:54.060 --> 00:07:54.899
They're gonna run some of the chains.

00:07:54.899 --> 00:07:59.899
(indistinct conversation)
(upbeat acoustic music)

00:08:02.857 --> 00:08:05.690
(chains rattling)

00:08:09.231 --> 00:08:12.600
Moving Chains, is a
structure, is a type of barge

00:08:12.600 --> 00:08:15.423
and it was intended to be by a river,

00:08:16.620 --> 00:08:18.753
a body of water, where commerce occurs.

00:08:20.730 --> 00:08:22.860
What you might think of as a roof,

00:08:22.860 --> 00:08:25.353
you find 100 foot long lengths of chain.

00:08:26.700 --> 00:08:29.493
Chains are designed to
move from the two layers.

00:08:30.630 --> 00:08:33.150
Their movement is supposed to make a link

00:08:33.150 --> 00:08:34.300
with the river current.

00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:43.410
When you walk into the
barge, underneath the chains,

00:08:43.410 --> 00:08:46.110
we want that to be an
intimidating experience.

00:08:46.110 --> 00:08:47.598
The chains, they're only four feet

00:08:47.598 --> 00:08:50.040
above the head of a six foot person.

00:08:50.040 --> 00:08:51.900
Since these chains are so big,

00:08:51.900 --> 00:08:55.242
we expect that it will
make quite a bit of noise.

00:08:55.242 --> 00:08:58.659
(chains loudly rattling)

00:09:21.180 --> 00:09:23.940
It's an intentionally theatrical strategy

00:09:23.940 --> 00:09:27.120
to make it be an intense emotional space

00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:30.870
to give you empathy through
metaphor of the terror

00:09:30.870 --> 00:09:32.583
and a horror of a slave ship.

00:09:33.759 --> 00:09:37.530
(chains loudly rattle)

00:09:37.530 --> 00:09:41.580
The intimidation is important to clarify

00:09:41.580 --> 00:09:43.580
the political critique of the work.

00:09:44.760 --> 00:09:48.030
That this structure
really was foundational

00:09:48.030 --> 00:09:50.238
to the American economy.

00:09:50.238 --> 00:09:51.930
(fast-paced symphony music)

00:09:51.930 --> 00:09:53.400
As I'm standing here,

00:09:53.400 --> 00:09:55.953
I cannot escape the
consequences of that history.

00:09:57.180 --> 00:09:58.380
How do we improve the world?

00:09:58.380 --> 00:10:00.270
How do we improve life for everybody?

00:10:00.270 --> 00:10:02.640
And I don't know if it's possible,

00:10:02.640 --> 00:10:03.930
but when the bad things happen,

00:10:03.930 --> 00:10:06.633
we should complain about
'em in order to reduce them.

00:10:07.950 --> 00:10:10.309
We should not forget how
things are put together.

00:10:10.309 --> 00:10:14.809
(fast-paced symphony music continues)