Horror Project (2007)
More past work!
Three works created during International Artist Residency at The Red Stables, Dublin, Ireland, Jan-April 2007. Four-day installation/performance. The Red Stables is located in St Anne’s Park, Dublin 3, and opened in June 2006. The building had recently been restored to its former Victorian glory with period features identifying the horse stables of the former Guinness Family Estate. It is located in of Dublin’s largest parks, St Anne’s covering approximately 270 acres.
Embedded below is the full edited document, at 21’35″. The first part starts at the beginning, the second part (a “videogame”) starts at 3’35″, and the third part (an interactive performance) starts at 7’25″.
This project was meant to emulate the setting and process found in social science experiments. The viewer/participant were meant to form their own conclusions after the process was completed.
A receptionist leads viewers one-by-one through a series of video installations and performances that develop from one to the next. Each piece deals with the construct of ‘evil’ in playful terms, pulling from the discourse on ‘evil’ as learned behavior or genetic predisposition. Simulated violence is combined with saccharine cuteness. In the first video, Furface Surface, a dog plays on the beach with a stick. It is sentimental to the point of annoyance. The receptionist asks each viewer to fill out a form asking them to illustrate or describe an urge or desire they have that makes them fearful.
The second part is Game Over. In a separate room, viewers are seated in front of a television and video game console, and told to use an adapted toy pistol to shoot a werewolf as it appears on the screen. The pistol does not really work, and the video game is actually a fixed animation made to seem as though there are consequences to the actions of the viewer. Slowly the viewer realizes they have no control over their own death in the video game.
Treatment Room comes directly after the videogame. Viewers are led into a tiny space blocked off from the rest of a large room by a wall constructed from scrap wood and doors. They are told that: 1) a baby werewolf is being trained for ‘pure evil’ and 2) they should shoot him with a slingshot if he does anything good or nice. A television is situated on a shelf in a wardrobe; the television shows the first-person viewpoint of the werewolf. During the performance, a slit opens in the wardrobe, exposing the werewolf. Some viewers chose this moment to begin shooting the werewolf as instructed, some disregarded the instructions and fired at will, while others refrained completely.
Tags: animal behavior, art, arturo vidich, dogs, performance