CV

 BEHOLD

THE EMPEROR JONES

These images represent the installation  “Behold the Emperor Jones”. It was constructed while I was an artist in residence at the Capp Street Project a, San Francisco institution

 

The center piece was a loop taken from the 1933 film "The Emperor Jones"  which tells  the story of a despotic ruler named brutish Jones played by Paul Robeson who was hunted by the native population he exploited, a population now in revolt. Jones is driven crazy by the sound of their incessant drumming as he runs through the forest in a futile attempt to escape the justice that is due. The drumming eventually causes him to runs directly into their hands.

 

The luxury sedan was outfitted with a killer bass sound system. On the interior of the car you can hear cop killer lyrics rhyming over the thumping bass , on the exterior of the car all one could here was the bass thump, but microphones on the interior of the car picked up the rap and relayed  them to a mixer. on a small monitor was the image of MLK giving various speeches, his voice was just low enough that it couldn't be heard over the bass thump but is was picked up by the  microphone  close to the screen and was also relayed to the same  mixer.  The cop killer MLK mix was then broadcast around the neighborhood for about a 4-5 block radius over the pirate radio transmitter.

 

Within the black cube was a small transistor radio sitting on a glass shelf that played the crackly mix over the looping image of the Emperor Jones running through the jungle from the sounds of the haunting drum. The drumming from the film loop and the bass from the car (which could still hear muffled inside the black box reflected each other both sonically and spatially.

 

Corollaries where draw between film drums, talking drums, hovering bass beats emitting from cars penetrating the walls of homes and lower powered micro FM broadcasting. These were all different modes of communication available to those lacking a voice.

 

The unanswered question that the work posed was, who was the despotic leader of our current day that pent up rage would be directed toward.   The shoes just represented the ultimate insult in the form an unattainable object of desire.