Date: 2010

Medium: Projected Video loop on DVD (edition of 3)

Duration: 21 min 42 sec

Description:

In ‘Blood Rites’ (2010) the artist appears with his face covered in honey and 23ct gold leaf.In the work the artist successively places 50 individually engraved razorblades in his mouth. The blades are then moved from cheek to cheek and spat out into a black hat. The gesture reminds of communion or even of the concealing of blades in prisoners mouths for nefarious purposes.

Each of the blades is engraved with a generic term for a family member including ‘mother’, ‘father’, ‘son’, ‘cousin’, grandmother and so on. However the list of family names also include non-blood relatives such as ‘partner’, ‘divorcee’, ‘ex-wife’ etc.

The work has been slowed down to almost 40 percent of its original speed making for a meditative viewing experience quite at odds with the violence of the repetitive gesture. The soundtrack was made using samples of various ships and submarines all in process of sinking.

The work is exhibited as a large scale video installation.

The work is part of a series of new projects all focused on exploring the history, mythology and impact of the discovery of gold in the ‘new world’ (Africa, America, Australia etc). Also see the works ‘ProSpecter’, ‘Blood Rites’ and ‘Challenging Mud (After Kazuo Shiraga)’.