Contradiction was performed on
Saturday July 14, 2001 from 7 PM – 2 AM
at
Pointless
Hysteria
in Vancouver. It was a part of the 2 day
event
The
United States of Being.
photos
of details of the work in progress and of the finished piece.
after 3 hours (detail) |
|
after 5 hours (detail) |
|
after 7 hours (detail) |
|
after 7 hours (detail) |
|
complete |
statement
for the performance
Every
action, repeated in a limited field, eventually negates itself.
Imagine an action, something spoken, a thought...
imagine
that action, speech, thought being repeated, again and again and
again
and again and again and again etc., all with the intention of
achieving
something positive.
During the beginning of such a process the action would seem
unconstrained, that is, its intended goal would be a real
possibility.
As the action proceeds it would be possible to sense or even to
predict
that the entire process may somehow be inhibited from attaining
its intended
goal although the specific nature of such constraints would
remain unknown.
As the action proceeds through repetition towards its own
undoing, when
at last the constraints and the nature of the entire process
become visible
and undeniable, the action will seem to be futile, and will
unavoidably achieve
an end contrary to the one intended.
Some believe existence to be an unlimited field.
In such a context any repetitive act, even actions repeated
infinitely, will always
proceed towards their goal… they will always progress.
However, where there is evidence that being, that living, leads
to instances
where it negates itself, where actions and speech and thoughts
and fantasies which
were once believed able to proceed indefinitely prove instead
that they are
destined only to negate themselves, to ruin exactly what they
were intending to build…
then our only conclusion must be that the belief that existence
is an unlimited field
is just that, a belief. And as everyone knows belief is often the
adolescence of delusion.
