Tales from the "F" train

Today Laura and I spent the afternoon with friends in Prospect Park. "Do you have your camera?" She asked. "No, I don't need it".

Cut to four hours later, I step into the "F" train on my way to work and see an old man holding what looks to be an oxygen mask to his face. A few minutes after I sat down I started to smell something funny, within another few minutes I had a headache. I turned to take a closer look at this guy and I saw that it wasn't an oxygen mask he was holding to his face, it was a sock. He was holding an old and dirty sock that looked as if it was just picked from a puddle on 10th Avenue. Seconds later he passed out. I took a closer look to find a can of paint-thinner peeking out of his pants pocket. I considered getting up and moving to a different car because of the headache but I never did. Every 10 minutes or so this man would quickly wake, look around, shove the sock in his face, look around again, shove the sock in his face again and then fall back down. The last time he did this I couldn't stop staring at him, nor could the group of children across from him. He opened the can of paint-thinner, repeatedly poured it all over his sock, shoved the sock in his face and held it there for what seemed like five minutes. What did this man look like? Imagine a 90 year-old Steven Wright, stringy hair, nearly bald, wearing the same thing for weeks and strung out on paint-thinner - all while riding the NY subway system. It was actually pretty sad. All I could think of, while I was awestruck by this man, was what had happened? Could all of this full-frontal depression been from one mistake he made long ago? Could he have been a respectable human being at one point in his life? Then came my paranoia: Could this happen to me? Could I be a strung out junkie on the "F" train someday? Clearly I'm not on that path, I have a blog! But that's what seeing stuff like that evokes. I quickly let go of that happening to me and started to imagine the course of this man's life. Two minutes after I got off the train I was in the middle of Times Square: Thousands of people were circling around me. Thousands of people with deep secrets, issues, fears, etc. I was overwhelmed. It was awesome. I just wish I had my camera.

Is digging a hole an idea?

Photographing The Dig Cunt, Coney Island, May 7 -13, 2007 - Photo: Creative Time

"Is digging a hole an idea? It is. It may be the greatest idea we've ever had" Ali Janka, member of Gelitin - The Dig Cunt interview, Bloomberg TV

I just saw this weeks edition of "The Muse": a weekly arts program on Bloomberg TV. They have a short interview with Florian and Ali from Gelitin; The interview took place during last weeks performance in Coney Island, titled, The Dig Cunt. I can't find the episode online. If anyone finds it, please let me know.


Rabbit drawing, copyright gelitin

Gelitin’s greatest idea, in my mind anyway, was Rabbit, 2005-2025.

" Rabbit - The things one finds wandering in a landscape: familiar things and utterly unknown, like a flower one has never seen before, or, as Columbus discovered, an inexplicable continent; and then, behind a hill, as if knitted by giant grandmothers, lies this vast rabbit, to make you feel as small as a daisy. The toilet-paper-pink creature lies on its back: a rabbit-mountain like Gulliver in Lilliput. Happy you feel as you climb up along its ears, almost falling into its cavernous mouth, to the belly-summit and look out over the pink woolen landscape of the rabbitís body, a country dropped from the sky; ears and limbs sneaking into the distance; from its side flowing heart, liver and intestines. Happily in love you step down the decaying corpse, through the wound, now small like a maggot, over woolen kidney and bowel. Happy you leave like the larva that gets its wings from an innocent carcass at the roadside.Such is the happiness which made this rabbit. i love the rabbit the rabbit loves me." Taken from "Rabbit" Press Releaes (English version).

Rabbit seen from the sky (one person sleeping on its belly), copyright gelitin

"Rabbit" will stay at its current location until the year 2025.

See more photos of the Rabbit here.
See an aerial view of the Rabbit on Google Maps here.

The Dig Cunt, Coney Island, May 7-13, 2007

Me and Florian Reither, The Dig Cunt, 2007, Photo by Jason Covert

About two weeks ago I received an email blast from CreativeTime. I'm a fan of CreativeTime, sometimes I don't understand their choice of projects but I respect their mission (they just celebrated 33 years). This specific email got my attention unlike any other. "Gelitin in Coney Island, The Dig Cunt." The Dig Cunt? What!?!

"Called by the quest to hole, gelitin will set out to dig on coney island beach. mornings we will take the train to coney island equipped with hands, shovels and a mind settled like grains of sand. we will dig for seven hours and in the evening close the hole and return back to manhattan. the next day we will take the train again to coney island and dig a hole and then close it again. the next day we will take the train again to coney island and dig a hole and then close it again." and so on...

Wolfgang Gantner, The Dig Cunt, 2007

THIS IS WHAT GOT MY FULL ATTENTION:
"Repeated over seven days, Gelitin describe the proposed durational work as a celebration of the millennium of the female and the anti-phallus, in effect the artistic reversal of the erect public monument. Part Dada, part Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi (1896), the absurdly poetic act of ritualized displacement, absence and renewal."

Photo by Jason Covert

For some reason I was deeply struck by this backwards feminism. Suddenly I found myself committed to going to Coney Island for all seven days, to photograph this absurd happening. I new if I just went once, I would convince myself that I had do go all seven days. It worked. I am not normally one for art-on-art, but I was sure I could create an amazing edition if I went. An edition of what? I did not know. More on that later, I pick up the film tomorrow.


Photo by Lucien Samaha

Gelitin is a group of four male artists from Austria. In 2000 they gained notoriety in New York when they secretly removed a window from the 91st floor of the World Trade Center and briefly installed an exterior balcony. The Dig Cunt began on Monday, May 7 (my birthday) and ended on Sunday, May 13, 2007 (Mothers Day).


Day 7

Boonville was also in full swing this week. Press releases went out all over the country, Support letters and packages went out, emails, phone calls, finalizing the equipment, blah, blah. Between draggin my 4x5 an hour each way to The Dig Cunt, dealing with Boonville, then having to go to my part-time job 4 out of the 7 days, I was exhausted. Wednesday was by far the craziest. I woke at 6:30, ran to the studio to deal with Boonville for a few hours, took the train home to grab my camera, took the train to Coney, shot for an hour, took the train home to drop off my camera, shoved a piece of cheese in my mouth, took a piss and then ran back to the "F" train to head into the city. I finished up my Boonville work by about 8pm and hit the train once again. I was fast asleep about 10 minutes after I walked through the door only to wake up at 5am on Thursday for my stupid part-time job. After I got out of work at 2pm I took the train home, grabbed my camera, took a piss, grabbed a piece of cheese, took the train to Coney, shot for 20 minutes, rushed home to drop off my camera, rushed to finalize Boonville stuff and then rushed to the opening of Laura's new play. This sort of thing went on for 5 of the 7 days, it actually went down exactly the same way on Friday, except it was a different play. Again, I was exhausted. I'm so glad I have you to talk to about this!

Boonville begins August 1, 2007

From Untitled (Great American), 2003

In 2003, Jason Covert and I hopped in his old Subaru and made our way to upstate New York. It was the birth of our "annual photo excursion". We had arrangements to stay in Boonville, New York, a small town just west of the Adirondacks. It was a blast. To this day it is still one of the best trips I have ever taken.

The work that came from that trip has gone through a number of changes. It has changed titles three times. It has gone from B&W to color back to B&W (I shot two sheets per shot, one color, one B&W). Even if I never get to a comfortable place with this series, I consider it a turning point in my work. Above is one of the pieces (I think) I am happy with.

Today I got confirmation that The Hallmark Institute of Photography, my Alma mater, is providing me with equipment for the duration of the project. Although I've been talking to them consistently since I graduated in 2000, It was about two and a half years ago that I first asked them to help support Boonville. Today is a good day! After many meetings, written proposals and constant emailing, it is finally confirmed. I've stressed over this and many things for so long, it's nice to have another item on my list crossed off. I should be picking up the equipment within the next week, minus a few post production items.

I am also excited to officially present BoonvilleUSA.com. This will be a place for me to share my experiences while on the road, as well as provide all the necessary info surrounding the project.