By Hannah O’Brien
The four videos, Picking Lemons, Lemon Labyrinth Drone Documentation, Lemon Burial, and Bee Lemon Cement tow the line between documentation and performance for the camera. To me, the biggest difference between live performance and performance for the camera, is the lag between the art and the receiver. The extremely long takes and the decision to include 90 minutes of picking lemons, brings the viewer closer to the duration of the live experience. I use my body and a tree as material, and the camera as a documentation tool. I use editing as a mechanism to control the pacing and the reception of the narrative. The installation can be compared to structural filmmaking, in that it tells a story and the delivery of that story is part of the telling. The freedom for the viewer to experience the videos in whatever order they want for however long they want, gives the viewer the opportunity to have a personalized experience. In Shaped by Lemons the viewer is a channel receiving sound and visual information based on their own timing and curiosity. Audio merges into one soundtrack for the whole space. The mixing of serious and silly, formalism and esotericism constitutes an absurd sensibility that is overtly demonstrated in this show through the life and death of lemons.
To explore what it means to be productive I assigned myself this task: pick all the lemons off the lemon tree in the front yard. The role of being a lemon harvester built on itself as the day progressed; the tote bags, harness, lemons, ladder, gloves, acrylic container and tree became charged with purpose. The environment responded to the task and I responded to the environment. The predetermined limitations of working with a perishable material, like lemons, spawned frenetic energy. The produce needed to be used to do something as proactive as lemon juice is functional. I made a labyrinth out of the lemons. Lemon Labyrinth for Mental Mealth is present in this show by way of documentary photographs and two minutes of drone footage. The photographs are oriented on the floor of the gallery to evoke the feeling of walking outside along a prescribed pathway.
Outdoor art, especially Earthworks, are particularly powerful because of their independence and durability, often over time enduring much harsher conditions than their maker. The lifespan of the lemons did not in fact determine the lifespan of the labyrinth; when the lemons were removed acid stains remained. The ghostly trace of the labyrinth carries on. The rubbery yellow fragrant lemons were now dark green and pungent in a pile in a trash bag. In Lemon Burial I bury the dead lemons. After throwing a pick mattock into the ground to loosen up the dirt, I used a transfer shovel to dig a hole. I laid in the grave before lowering the lemons. It was a quiet refuge from the wind; it was a very windy day. NOTES: Picking Lemons took place from 9am to 5:30pm in early January 2024. I hired a friend to be the director of photography. An 18 ft ladder was used to reach the fruit on the exterior of the tree. I made a nylon webbing harness to attach tote bags to and I prepared the recurring black duck canvas uniform I’ve worn in previous performances. I ordered leather thorn proof rose pruning gloves off Amazon.com. Lemon Vitrine, featured periodically in the Picking Lemons video, is a sculpture of an acrylic container full of all the harvested lemons. It existed in my front yard under the bare lemon tree for two weeks while I fished around trying to figure out what to do with all the fruit. Lemon Labyrinth for Mental Mealth, a 1,318 inch labyrinth. It existed for 27 days on the roof of the several-story high 950 building. The lemons were halved, faced down suctioned to the cement. Splayed out, the art was in direct relationship with the sky; the labyrinth appeared to be a memorial. Lemon Burial, is a 13 minute single channel looping video of myself in the desert digging a hole and burying the dead lemons. The sound is mostly comprised of the wind, clanking tools, swishes from the black duck canvas uniform, and 60 seconds of crunching on chips. Bee Lemon Cement is a 3 minute 30 second abstract looped video of a bee on one of the lemons lining the labyrinth. There is faint audio of construction and a nearby train.
Shaped by Lemons
March 30 - April 6th
ArtCenter Main Gallery
950 S. Raymond Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91105
1. Picking Lemons, 2024
90 minute single channel video loop, with sound Projector
2. Photograph Pathway Documentation of Lemon Labyrinth, 2024
12 x 12” printed photographs on 17” wide paper 200 x 17 ”
3. Lemon Burial, 2024
13 minute single channel video loop, with sound 47 ” monitor
4. Drone Footage Documentation of Labyrinth, 2024
2 minute video on loop Shovel, plywood, 40” monitor
5. Bee Lemon Cement, 2024
3 minute 30 second video loop, with sound Projector