Song of Substance - Dealing the Death of Me
This large work describes the ‘telecommunication’ between the figure of myself and that of an entity ‘immersed in feedback’ in another dimension. I used photography from a homemade camera as a way of capturing a ghostly memory of my presence in the workshop.
This is a ‘real’ space, in which my connection to the world is referred to, including the 1941 recording of Big Joe Williams and Sonny Boy Williams performing Break ‘em on Down, ‘lyrics from which the title of the work is extracted.
The second figure is roughly hewn in woodcut, inhabiting a material domain like a denizen of a subterranean world. Both figures are life-size, as if flatly projected upon the surface like effigies or imprints of actual bodies.
I used the lyrics of the song Break ‘em on Down —
‘I won’t stop dealing
Until I break ‘em on down’
— as inspiration for the hopeless conversation that occurs between the two trapped figures.
I imagined the gambling theme of the song related to a pact that might be made between myself and an elemental spirit, until the metaphysical barriers separating us are broken down.
Explore this theme
1. Introduction
4. Transmigratory Passage of the Death Wish
5. Dealing the Death of Me (You Are Here)
