12’ 30’’ (DISTURBING REPORTS)

I've been making durational drawings where small, humble marks accumulate on a surface over time until a sense of space or structure emerges. Last year I made a new video-based drawing for a show at the Coachella Valley Art Center. I haven't added this work to my website or shared it outside of an artist talk since it showed last August. I haven't shared the work previously because I didn't want to share it following a specific tragedy. I wanted there to be space between the work and the tragic events that catalyzed my need to make it. I see now that the space between tragedies is collapsing in our country and that there may never be a good time to add it to my archives. I uploaded it last week.

This piece was titled: 12' 30'' (disturbing reports) and began with the premise that all moments (durations), despite their measurement, are not equal. The rate at which I made marks correspond to the average firing rate of an automatic weapon in untrained hands. The work's duration mirrors the average police response time for a school shooting in America. The 1500 accumulated marks that make this drawing represent the total potential number of bullets fired before police arrive. This work was drawn like a set of tally marks on a plastic scrim, crossed at the end with a counter-stroke the way we learned in school. The title is a play on the word report used to describe both a news story and the auditory confirmation of a gun dispensing its bullet(s).