Sarah/Cancelled
Full Title: "Sarah's House of Pleasure Cancelled - A Sadistic Love
Poem"
December 9, 1993
Alfred University
Elements: Coffee, Artist, Cardboard and Glass Box, Nails, Glass Shards, Tape
Recording, Books, Magnifying Glass
Behind a glass window are several books by the Marquis de Sade. A pot
of coffee is brewing in a glass percolator on table set next to an old
wooden school chair. On the chair is a box. A recording of a poem
written by the artist is playing. After the first reading it is joined
by a recording of a reading of a passage of the Marquis de Sade's "The
120 Days of Sodom" At the end of each reading on the tape another reading
joins it eventually becoming a cacophony of sound. After twelve readings
are layered on top of each other, one reading is subtracted in reverse
order. The last reading is the artist's poem about the soul box.
Upon the first reading the artist enters, dons a cardigan and changes his
glasses. Sitting down he pours a cup of coffee and has a sip. With the box
in his lap at chest height he turns on the high wattage light inside it.
Viewers can now see there is a small wax doll inside it. As the recording
begins to become less coherent the artist slowly pushes nails and shards
of glass into the sides of the box. The heat from the lamp inside the box
starts to slowly melt the doll, while the nails and glass glance off the
dolls waxy surface.
The artist periodically pauses to drink coffee. The glass coffee pot at this
time has achieved a full boil and is rattling and banging. The smell of
burnt coffee is beginning to fill the room. The recording has achieved it
climax and is beginning its decent down. The artists at times runs a large
magnifying glass over the face of the glass box, showing detail the deterioration
of the wax figure. There are also moments when the artist pauses to drink
coffee.
As the recording returns to to a single voice the artist begins to wrap
the box in a black rubber sheet. He then rises and puts the box in cabinet.
With the completion of the poem he turns the coffee off, removes his cardigan
and glasses and leaves the room.