I'll never wear sunglasses again

2014
HD projection and chrome fans
10'35 min

Cast in order of appearance

Derek Jarman: Henry Rylands

Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Mateo Rufino

Paul Thek: Brian Aarden-Hanford

Edward Scissorhands: Tom Donovan

Male Ostrich: Bless Klepcharek 

Wind Boy: Finlay Rees

Cinematography and editing
Abri de Swardt


Sound
Will Sheridan Jr
Izan Greyling


Score
Braam du Toit


Choreographic assistance
Barbara Gamper


with help from Matthias Tharang, Min-Wei Ting and Derzu Campos

I'll never wear sunglasses again

2014
HD projection and chrome fans
10'35 min

I'll never wear sunglasses again proposes a meeting between the artists Paul Thek (b. 1933, d. 1988), Derek Jarman (b. 1942, d. 1994) and Felix Gonzalez-Torres (b. 1957, d. 1996) through ellipses, cut-ups, and gestures. Questions of interiority, health, the materiality of time and the hand of the artist are punctuated by a host of fantastical characters – Edward Scissorhands, a male ostrich in heat and the Wind Boy. The video considers the ethics of mourning, particularly with regards to revisiting and reviving the historicised AIDS body that defined queer male artists of the late 20th century. The idea of health-as-desirability, as boasted in digital hook-up platforms, is troublingly mirrored by the work to question generational forgetting. An abyssal blankness – of the virtual page, of the sheet that covers the ghost, of the blinding tunnel of near-death experiences, of the infinity curve – casts the action in a state of suspense. As the narrative unfolds, leechcraft and animal courtship are invoked to point to wider interspecies relations and interdependencies in holistic acts. The video is installed with floor fans triangulated beneath the projection screen to affect proprioception.

from left to right:
Edward
Paul
Derek
Male Ostrich
Felix
2014
Collage, clothing, 19th century leopard skin, Super8 camera, sunglasses, Amazon boxes, mannequins, and plastic windmill

From left to right:
Felix's Forearm
Wind Boy
2014
Found image, collage, clothing, and camel thorn tree thorn

B OT TOM OF T HE W ORL D
A0 blue back poster made in conversation with Elene Abashidze