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Target
Assault performance/installation |
@
DUMBO Arts Festival 2007 |
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Target
Assault, a visual assault on a potential terrorist target,
the Manhattan Bridge, by a weaponless naked figure. While
debate continues in Washington D.C. as to what constitutes
a potential target, confused by vested interests fighting
over money allocations, New Yorkers understand that their
bridges are more than landmarks, more than transportation
infrastructures; they are functional icons of the integration
of communities; physical and conceptual connectors that
are precious and more of a potential for damage to the
city than any Washington D.C. crony could ever imagine.
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That
said, no matter how much money could be allocated to
protect specific sites, it is impossible to imagine all
possibilities... a culture of war and isolationism is
the real threat. Inclusiveness and community building,
globally, like the New York model of connected communities
IS where the solution lies. |
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Target
Assault shows a nude figure, devoid of all potential
harm, climbing the structure, traversing a portion and
returning to the ground. It is a projected image, further
offering no potential harm to the structure, leaving
no trace, yet presenting a powerful image of intervention,
of interaction between the most basic human form and
the structure. A strange hybrid of tactical assault and
embrace, emphasized by the use of the V.R.A.G. (Video
Remix Artillery Gun), a projection device used in previous
DUMBO festivals and Drive-By performances, that mimics
the form and ability of an artillery gun, to throw video
in multiple directions and change content on the fly... |
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Set
up on the street, like any terrorist could do at any
time with a real weapon, shooting up to the underbelly
of the bridge and to the footings, demonstrates the futility
of trying to protect the structure and still keep it
in service... the structure is vulnerable because it
should be, as any connection between communities, between
peoples is vulnerable. The only way to protect it from
all possibilities is to isolate it and not use it. Just
like we can protect the conceptual connections through
building community, so can we protect the structures
through global community building. |
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