DEADPAN
This video is an attempt to span the gap between performance and its documentation. In this short piece, I am driving, in the rain. I am playing a recorded speech on my iPod over the car radio. During the speech, the art historian's strident, authoritarianism is punctured by a question from the audience she cannot answer, about 'deadpan'. Within this moment we find enclosed doubt, and through doubt the veil of certainty is lifted. I attempt to rewind the iPod to play exactly this moment as often and as accurately as I can, but while distracted by driving, my ability to do so is impaired.Such process creates a conflation between the image as viewed and the audio that accompanies it. The image poetically represents that moment of internal questioning and connects to my overriding interest in the viewer, particularly where the voice says "well, ...I think that deadpan...leaves a lot of work up the audience..."