One of the few works that really grounded me during TBA was the video "Europleasure International, Touch and Go," by Christina Lucas. It was fairly high quality slow-motion video shot of people throwing rocks at a large empty building, as well as the glass falling from the windows on the inside. Old and young people throw the rocks, some pull up in cabs to throw them. Clearly, people had to bring their own rocks. No one throws very well, and I also noticed for the first time that there is a difference between how Europeans throw rocks and Americans throw rocks. You could tell none of these old men had ever hurled a baseball, that they were all cricketers. At the end, the camera pans back from the building to display the words "Touch and Go" spelled out by the broken windows. I loved going into the nearly quiet space (just mellow orchestral music for the sound) and watching the glass fall over and over and over again. Such a needed break from the throngs of intoxicated, over-dressed and slightly trendy people milling about outside.
I was out on a date with a guy a friend of mine thought I would like, and it was not going well. One of the indicators was that the gentleman in question brought up this video, and tried to speak informatively about it. I was listening, and kinda nodding along (he was so impressed that the camera had captured so much detail, that people let themselves to be filmed vandalizing a building, blah blah blah...) when I realized he hadn't seen the words. "Oh," he said "I must not have seen that part." How did you miss it? I wondered. It's the longest shot in the film. "Well, it was a long film." About 15 minutes, maybe? "How many times did you watch it?" Oh, I had to admit... probably 12 times. "You spent 3 hours watching windows break?"
hmm, is that odd? It was on for over a week. It was quiet and beautiful and free. And, most importantly, no one was watching it with me most of the time. I could just relax, surrounded by slow, muted and marvelous.
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