our father

Video, Photography

Summary,

The images used in "Our Father" were shot in the backyard of an 89 year old man who lives in a “shanty” in the Virgin Islands. The yard, a tropical jungle of palms and assembled piles of discarded, collected and trashed items belong to the house in which he has lived for the last 84 years. In the midst of this chaotic but peaceful landscape are these dolls with their childlike innocence, burnished and abandoned to the elements, sometimes carried off by the dogs, bound to displays along with other discarded items, lying face down on the ground or placed in a broken down car or rusted out frying pan. This walk through time seems a parallel to the current state of affairs in the Caribbean where crime and violence have reached staggering proportions, claiming many young lives and producing a frightening loss of innocence and harmony in us all. In the midst of this chaotic but peaceful landscape are these dolls with their childlike innocence, burnished and abandoned to the elements, sometimes carried off by the dogs, bound to displays along with other discarded items, lying face down on the ground or placed in a broken down car or rusted out frying pan. This walk through time seems a parallel to the current state of affairs in the Virgin Islands and perhaps Puerto Rico where crime and violence have reached staggering proportions, claiming many young lives and producing a frightening loss of innocence and harmony in us all. This cacophony of discordant notes produces a jarring and strange beauty evoking powerful feelings of sadness, distress and overwhelming loss. This video is underlined with Gustav Mahler’s Song No. 4, sung by Andreas Schmidt, from the song cycle, Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children), composed between 1901 and 1904. Mahler selected five of the poems from Kindertotenlieder, a group of poems written by Rückert in 1833-34 in reaction to the illness (scarlet fever) and death of his two children…In today’s world children are at risk from violence, poverty and abuse sometimes at their own parents hand. The childlike voice saying the “Our Father” illustrates the vulnerability and innocence that puts them at risk when they are not protected by their fathers. This video was first shown in the exhibition "Daily Strife", which dealt with timely issues facing the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. It was presented in the Fall, 2009 at the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts in St. Croix.