Apt. 218, North Beach Housing Projects, 500 Chestnut St, SF, CA, 94133, May, 2001
Before the North Beach Housing Project in San Francisco were torn down a one night show was done in utilizing the vacant apartments. I was in the space performing (wearing my “uniform”) for the duration of the show (eight hours). Curated by Werner Klotz. Special thanks to Nate Martin for taking photographs.
When the viewer first enters the apartment there is no light in the first room (the kitchen) and the door to the street shuts automatically behind them. Across the hall there is the living room that is being illuminated by a very dim light. All other light has been completely eliminated from the apartment so the disoriented viewer naturally goes to living room drawn in by the faint light.
On route to the living room the viewer unknowingly walks by me as I hide in the dark dressed in black pants, black shoes, black, tie, black tie, black belt, black socks, and white shirt (my “uniform”).
Inside the living room the viewer finds a small cabinet that has light radiating form behind its door. When the door is opened there is a small swing-set with a strawberry cupcake in it oscillating back and forth. On top of the cupcake there is a lit birthday candle.
In the top drawer of the cabinet there are new cupcakes. In the bottom drawer there are cupcakes that have had a candle burn down on them. Every eight minutes I walked from the kitchen to the living room, removed the cupcake that was in the swing-set, placed a fresh one in and lit a new candle. This went on for eight hours. As the viewer explores the rest of the apartment they find that the doors to the two bedrooms and the closet are locked and there is a faint outline of light coming from behind it (bare in mind that the photo is REALLY over exposed…but you get the idea).
Upon further examination the viewer can feel that the doorknob to each room is slowly rotating by itself. This is not something that could be seen. It could only be noticed by carefully placing ones finger on the doorknob. If grabbed in the normal manner one interacts with the doorknob it will simply feel loose as it is clutched to stop spinning when a gentle touch is not used.
In the bathroom the viewer finds a medicine cabinet with (again) a faint outline of light coming from its interior. Inside the medicine cabinet there is a light-house and a searchlight made from pill bottles that are slowly turning and shining beams of light across the bathroom.
