Medium: Digital Video / Year: 2015
It is hard to look critically inside the reality one deems safe and secure. The mythology of security is written in the blood of generations. It is hard to come to terms with the fact that one’s sense of self, the perceived normality of a secured existence, is only made possible by insecurity that threatens countless forgotten populations. When we performed this piece in the Federal Reserve Building/Boston, we were detained by the Boston Police. It is illegal to disrupt and scare spaced of “perfection.”
In the performance and single channel video piece, Yo(u), refers to the intersubjective and complex relationship between the audience, the victims and the perpetrators of violence. Məˈtänəmē intended to accentuate this process visually, and graphically contrast two opposing realities. In one of these two different realms, a hooded dancer swirls, two cocktail glasses of blood in her hands. In the other, a hooded specter walks through Boston’s Financial District, exploring the scene of a white washed crime. This portion was an actual performance, for which the performers were momentarily detained by the authorities.
The act of existing in such space was deemed an act of terrorism. The fear of terrorism is only a symptom ignorant consumption. Məˈtänəmē, as the creator of violent images, also present in this threesome. The shadow of our objectifying gaze seeps from behind the camera. To be able to make art, one must be sustained in structure of objective violence. To be a creator, one must be a destroyer, for one is creating a new reality on the backbones of those who don’t have the privilege to speak.