Artist Statement

"As fast and for as long as possible" is a response to an apparent imperative which seems to characterize our lives in contemporary society. The act is carried on all fours for two reasons. The impetus for it comes from an animalistic sense of an ever potential failure a person living under such imperative may have: "I might not be able to go on, I am just going to drop here and lay here still, then crawl or walk on all fours". The motion on all fours is also a cumbersome movement for the human body and in that is a parallel to the obstructed character a human life has under the imperative "as fast and as long as possible".

It is particular to the movement on all fours that it is straining from the beginning of the act and therefore does not go through a physically and visually obvious progression as, for example, running on two as fast and for as long as possible. The muscles and skeleton resist this abnormal motion in a way that makes the human body give out signals as if it is on the verge of collapsing three minutes into the act the same way it signals fifty minutes later. The sense of a pending total exhaustion therefore occurs repeatedly. This repetition opens a door to questioning our fulfillment of the detrimental imperative 'as fast and for as long possible'. It also offers a chance to witness the human determination to overcome the fear of total exhaustion and to feel confident in the face of such fear.

Duration of this act 48 minutes, video 5 minutes.
Made in collaboration with Brian Budak