Mesmerized Machines

 

 

 

 

 

"MESMERIZED MACHINES (aka the Heap of Janes or the Über Jane Heap) was a 24-hour group experiment, an assembly of 7 performing bodies, 7 somnambulant parts, programmed to become aspects of Jane Heap/ jh. For 24 hours, this self-organized, 7-headed/-limbed Jane Heap-apparatus resurrected the late Jane Heap, creating 7 openings into Heap's anatomy and cellular history, focusing on her sudden departure from the Arts in order to join a certain occult Mr. G. I. Gurdjieff and his mystical group-machine. Through the embodiment of Heap's own personal notes and Gurdjieff's rituals, movements and Work-related activities, the Jane Heap-apparatus probed the vertical extent of Heap's inner space and personal extremes. Within this dark matter, the apparatus created a morphic field of resonance from where Heap's body and recollections were reanimated and acted out as the raw material of the real Work."

 

Installation in a black room:

3 channel video (scanned 16 mm negative, scrolling text, graphic text) projected on 3 metal plates. Each plate displays a silk screen text.