Mika Tajima b. 1975
Holding Your Breath (Taking the Long Way) (2008)
Holding Your Breath (Taking the Long Way) is a video work that resulted from Mika Tajima/New Humans' collaborative exhibition Disassociate in 2007. Disassociate consisted of autonomous sculptures arranged as structures for collaboration, performance, and disruption.
""The two New Humans performances that punctuated Disassociate (2007), an installation by Tajima at Elizabeth Dee Gallery in New York, were created in collaboration with poet-artist-architect Vito Acconci and violinist C. Spencer Yeh. This multilayered work responds structurally to Sympathy for the Devil (1968), Jean-Luc Godard's closeup film documenting the Rolling Stones' fractious, collaborative open studio sessions recorded just prior to the moment when the band's first leader, Brian Jones, went absent from the group (and drowned shortly thereafter). Using the film as a reference point, Tajima notes, the installation and performances reflected the process of working together, with all of its contradictions, takes, trials, errors, and transparency of production" Ã Todd Alden
For one of the live improvised performances with New Humans, Acconci reads permutations of text from a set of seminal audio works he chose -- recombining lines and phrases on the move against Yeh's shifting, acute, and minimally deadpan sonic progression. Text include V.D. Lives/ TV Must Die (1978), Now Do You Believe The Dirty Dogs Are Dead (1978), An Idea Of Storage At A Small Gallery In Downtown Chicago (1979), Cry, Baby! (1977).
""Holding Your Breath (Taking the Long Way)"
2008
13 min.
by Mika Tajima/ New Humans
edited Mika Tajima
performers: Vito Acconci, Howie Chen, Mika Tajima, C. Spencer Yeh
camera: James Papadopoulos
sound mastering: James Plotkin
sound recording: Hsi-Chang Lin
produced by: Elizabeth Dee Gallery
RELATED RESOURCES:
New Humans in UbuWeb Sound
""The two New Humans performances that punctuated Disassociate (2007), an installation by Tajima at Elizabeth Dee Gallery in New York, were created in collaboration with poet-artist-architect Vito Acconci and violinist C. Spencer Yeh. This multilayered work responds structurally to Sympathy for the Devil (1968), Jean-Luc Godard's closeup film documenting the Rolling Stones' fractious, collaborative open studio sessions recorded just prior to the moment when the band's first leader, Brian Jones, went absent from the group (and drowned shortly thereafter). Using the film as a reference point, Tajima notes, the installation and performances reflected the process of working together, with all of its contradictions, takes, trials, errors, and transparency of production" Ã Todd Alden
For one of the live improvised performances with New Humans, Acconci reads permutations of text from a set of seminal audio works he chose -- recombining lines and phrases on the move against Yeh's shifting, acute, and minimally deadpan sonic progression. Text include V.D. Lives/ TV Must Die (1978), Now Do You Believe The Dirty Dogs Are Dead (1978), An Idea Of Storage At A Small Gallery In Downtown Chicago (1979), Cry, Baby! (1977).
""Holding Your Breath (Taking the Long Way)"
2008
13 min.
by Mika Tajima/ New Humans
edited Mika Tajima
performers: Vito Acconci, Howie Chen, Mika Tajima, C. Spencer Yeh
camera: James Papadopoulos
sound mastering: James Plotkin
sound recording: Hsi-Chang Lin
produced by: Elizabeth Dee Gallery
RELATED RESOURCES:
New Humans in UbuWeb Sound