2015: Colleen Plumb @ Pilsen

Above: Colleen Plumb standing before "Thirty Times a Minute" 2014, a projected digital video, with sound, 7:37 minutes in length, looped, shown from 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM, on January 31, 2015, at 18th Street and Sangamon Street, in Pilsen, Chicago, IL.

Colleen Plumb
"Thirty Times a Minute"
7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
January 31, 2015
18th Street and Sangamon Street
Pilsen
Chicago, IL

http://www.colleenplumb.com/

http://thirtytimesaminute.com/

"Why do so many people want to look at animals? Why do we defend or implicitly support the practice of looking? What does it mean to participate as a spectator of captive animals?

'Thirty Times A Minute' explores elephants in captivity. Since 2009, I have traveled to more than half of the seventy-five zoos in the US that keep elephants, making video of elephants exhibiting what biologists refer to as stereotypic behavior, also called 'weaving.' Only captive elephants exhibit weaving, which includes rhythmic rocking, swaying, swinging the trunk, head bobbing, stepping back and forth, or pacing. These compulsive, repetitive movements cause debilitating, life-threatening damage to the animals’ feet and joints. I have also begun to document circuses and fairs where elephants perform. The project title references the heart rate of an elephant: circus owners have been known to tell visitors that elephants must sway as they doze while standing, keeping with their heart rate of thirty beats per minute.

...In what ways do humans, along with all living beings, seek soothing and connectivity? Can ritualistic behaviors be viewed as a means of escape from present reality, and do forms of escape potentially--or inevitably--become debilitating distortions?"

Quotation above from: http://www.colleenplumb.com/video/warp.statement.htm

Above: Plumb's video projector by means of which "Thirty Times a Minute" has been presented on building facades in 11 different Chicago neighborhoods between October 10, 2014, and January 31, 2015.

Above: Plumb's vehicle-mounted projector in operation on Sangamon Street, immediately south of 18th Street, at the beginning of the Chicago blizzard lasting from January 31, 2015 to February 2, 2015.

Above: A spectator interacts with Plumb's "Thirty Times a Minute" video projection on January 31, 2015, at the intersection of 18th Street and Sangamon Street, in Pilsen, Chicago, IL.

Read more:

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/love-and-loss-and-the-animal-kingdom/

http://www.mocp.org/collection/mpp/plumb_colleen.php

http://www.wipnyc.org/blog/colleen-plumb

Above:
Images (1-4) January 31, 2015;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos