Seed Beds – 7 Prime Beetroots and 10 Prime Radishes
Reference to Acconci: https://archive.org/details/ubu-acconci_seedbed
Reference to Acconci: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_dqT-XeIjA
Each of the galleries 3 rooms contained a separate but integrated performative installation; Seedbed, Transference Zone and Supply Room. Seedbed is the most famous of the three, in this performance/installation Acconci lay under a purpose built platform in an empty gallery space and repeatedly masturbated. Speaking into a microphone, played through speakers, he attempted to make some connection with the gallery visitors to fuel his fantasies. In Transference Zone a small isolation chamber was assembled opposite a ‘waiting room’ with chairs and rugs, the chamber contained photographs and possessions of seven people who Acconci had identified as the ‘7 prime people’ in his life. During the course of the exhibition Acconci immersed himself in the chamber and the lives and personalities of the seven people, if a visitor knocked on the door of the chamber and Acconci was alone he would invite them in, he would imagine they were one of the prime people and respond to them as he thought the prime person would respond. Supply Room was a collaboration with Kathy Dillon, a corner of the gallery space was screened off by a green netting, opposite was a drum set, crumpled black netting, cushions and a tape recorder, Acconci would stand behind the netting wearing a blindfold, Dillon would sit with the drums and would invite women who entered the space to kidnap Acconci and take him prisoner. In all 3 works Acconci was attempting to make contact with his audience in new unexpected and challenging ways, he was attempting to connect and challenge the physical space with the social space, and he was interested in challenging the boundaries established of the museum and gallery; the internal/external, private/public, artist/audience, male/female, desire/disgust, interest/repulsion etc..
My first response to the concept of Acconci’s Transference Zone and his ‘7 prime people’ is indirect, obscure, absurd and illogical. In all of the response projects I am following energy rather than ideas. I began by very loosely and very quickly drawing 7 beetroots in response to one of the early online student group workshops, I drew them again very quickly in pink crayon, I assigned each of the drawings with a personality, I then aligned them to a person who was present in my life that day, so they became my ‘7 prime beetroots’. The animation of the beetroot drawings is a play, a dance, between 7 characters. I went on to give the beetroots voices, I asked my 7 prime people for voice recordings of randomly chosen words, I then went on to make a stop frame animation with the wasted radish shoots I had had to pull out of the veg bed, I played my recorder to give them each notes, again a different personality and role in the play.
7 Prime Beetroots – film – 1 minute 7 seconds
7 Prime Beetroots (2) – film – 1 minutes 42 seconds
7 Prime Beetroots (Talking) – film – 1 minute 42 seconds
10 Prime Radishes (Playing) – film – 28 seconds