2019: Artist and friend Dustin Hedrick asked me to record him on video as he was removing a mural he had created at Crosstown Arts gallery in Memphis, Tn. He wanted a vertical static shot of the entire process, which lasted about 3 hours, that we could then speed up and turn into a 1 minute video time lapse for social media.
Being more used to having freedom of movement and narrative when I’m shooting, I decided to additionally record on an other camera I had, using a home-movie approach developed in the 70’s when super 8mm cameras were the iphones of today.
Being more of a preserver in terms of the longevity of the works I create, in opposition to Dustin’s tape murals which have a much shorter life span, I was interested in Dustin’s philosophy behind crafting a piece of work that has more the quality of an experience rather than to be an ornament for a wall; for Dustin’s murals are intended to walk in, on and around them in order to appreciate their quality and the morphing of it’s shapes depending on the angle which they are being seen.
The byproduct of Dustin’s action also is important, hence tape duck. A work of art by one of my favorite artists, Francis Alÿs, titled “Sometimes doing something leads to nothing” which consists of a video of himself pushing a large bar of ice around the streets of downtown Mexico city until it has completely melted, speaks to the transformation of our intentions while creating art sometimes. In this case, tape duck takes a slightly different path, where sometimes doing something will lead to creating something else, sometimes unintentionally.
Dustin’s ig: @clicky_things_clickin