Happy Birthdays! (2016)
Birthdays are for you. Birthdays are for me. Birthdays are for everyone, even for those who have passed on. Hurray.
My first installation, "Happy Birthdays!", consists of performing objects alongside an appropriated performance along within a constricted and wonderfully dark space. "Happy Birthdays!" is an experience, it i growing up, exhibiting your years, and parading the death of your youth. Birthdays celebrate progress through life and years, but to what are we progressing? The installation consists of three parts: objects on the floor, sound, and video projection.
On the floor there are various paper silhouettes of children playing spread throughout the room, either pink, blue, green, or yellow. The silhouettes are made of card stock cut in a confetti fashion, outlining each of the little bodies. On each of the silhouette's hands, there is a small plastic plate with a single cupcake on it. The frosting matches the silhouette's paper and a single black candle sticks up from the middle of the cupcake. In the other hand there is a tiny silver fork, the prongs pointing towards the cupcake. In the center of the room there is a bundle of balloons which correspond to the colors of the silhouettes.
The video and projected images are that of a theremin player projected into the sky with a dreary still theater surrounding the performance. The video and images are meant to be projected on three connecting walls, preferably in a small, enclosed space with no other lighting. The sound is that of the funeral-dressed theremin player playing "Happy Birthday,"and loops between playing in order and in reverse.
The installation begins with the candles being lit on each of the cupcakes and the projection being played. The installation ends once the last candle burns out. The room is lit by the projection and tiny candles, and the deep bass of the theremin fills the audible space as black wax bubbles and drips over colorful cupcakes.