Monday, April 27, 2009

Excerpted interview

Interview excerpt:

I: Can you please tell us about the trilogy, particularly xo_xx & xo_xy?

CD: Yes, why, yes, that’s such a good question, I would like to answer, but first I would like to take in the question in all its weight, for it bears the weight of history. (Pause while CD takes in the weight of history, and from the way his breathing suddenly changes to the rhythm of one who must bear enormous grief, it is apparent that he has done this so many times before.)

I: Can I please go get some water while you are doing whatever it is that you are doing, I have not had anything to drink all day and I am feeling like I might be getting severely light-headed.

CD: No, now let me just speak a bit on xo_xx; this last piece, the one before the current piece, xo_xy. There is a table. There is a microphone. He speaks into the microphone and an electronically-manipulated voice, like that which would suggest the voice of a woman, comes out of the speaker. We see images of longing and desire, and occasionally, a woman’s face, who will speak to represent the Orishas (see footnote, not included in this document), and when she speaks, he is speaking for her. He speaks, but it looks like she talks. So funny.

I: That is actually very disturbing, because it almost suggests that even in this political economy, where there is some awareness of post-feminisms, the male speaker still speaks in place of her, so that he is still the one who speaks her echoes in a way, and she is erased in a way.

CD: Yes, very uncomfortable. Isn’t it?

I: I don’t think I want to listen to anything else because I am not sure I even trust that you’re who you say you are.

CD: I am not. And I am not Echo, but sure, that's me.

I: Good, interesting. Interesting to me because it's about me. I was going through a period where I was echoing all the time, because I was, you know, uncomfortable, sure, that's me. Now. xo_xy. Is there nudity?

CD: Yes.

I: Good, and tell me the reasons for this, is it to turn the table on the gaze, the Lacan thing, like you’ve done before, almost ad nauseum, is it that?

CD: Yes, it’s that kind of repetition, but a liberatory repetition. And yet. And yet. And still. I have been working out a lot, and working as an artist’s model, to make extra money since they cut all faculty associate positions at the university where I taught unflinchingly and unrealistically compensatedly for so many years (note: I blame myself), and so. I think it would be good to be naked in my living room in a way that other people might witness it, so they can see that when I am naked in my living room, I am also very much in shape, and most important, they know this one simple truth: I do not condone weapons and I do not drink, but when I go somewhere, I am always bringing my guns and a six-pack.

(They laugh and they laugh and they laugh, and she looks at him like she might want to make out with him on the porch, but she does not because suddenly she decides that she will use him to make her boyfriend jealous at a later date.)

(They don’t move.)

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