DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY, 1999
20’ x 49’ x 21’ (dimensions variable) installation at West Virginia University, Morgantown.
Earth, mixed media, 18 min, CD sound loop, roving search light.
Degree of Difficulty, at first glance, evokes leisure. However, even in the context of sport or recreation, the situation is permeated with expectation—waiting for the plunge, scanning for those sinking. In a larger economic context, Degree of Difficulty acts as a metaphor for our inaction in times of crises, our precipitation of cataclysmic events, our withholding in face of desperation. Our state of perpetual preparation, our constant vigilance, the heightened state of anxiety is conveyed in a drought-stricken arena where the beckoning of distant siren calls are distinct, but their origins removed, their voices disembodied, their exotic allure not immediate enough to compel action. The benefits of willful ignorance allow psychological barriers to remain intact; we are high and dry without thirsting. Amidst the commotion, we remain isolated and nothing really happens. From the lifeguard chair, the panoptic overseer sits, omniscient, but not omnipotent. From the high dive, the observed becomes absurd in the bleak humor of a suicidal moment.
The gallery visitors may become poolside judges assessing the “degree of difficulty” (a term for competitive diving) based on the complications of contortions in a downward fall. We diligently mark down the tally of the latest splash. This place “where no water is” is an open stage awaiting the viewers’ narrative, their projected drama, their response to “You don’t want help, I’ll help you”.
