Kelly Mark: Hiccup #1 (Toronto)

Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5	Day 6	Day 7

Hiccup #1 - 2000
7 channel DVD, 15 minutes each, silent 2000
photo credit: Emily Brian / video credit: Marc Piccinato"Hiccup"

This 7-channel video series entitled "Hiccup" is based on a 30 day performance that took place daily between 8:45 am & 9:00 am at Central Tech High School in downtown Toronto. Conceived as an orchestrated "ballet of the ordinary", the work pivots on the play of two differentiated timelines: my standardized routine of carefully choreographed body movements, juxtaposed against the limitless variables of the everyday world.

...some notes
This video work's original conception took place as a month long performance as part of an exhibition organized by the 'Public Access Collective' entitled "Being on Time" located at Central Tech High School in downtown Toronto. I was asked to create a new work, in any medium, reflecting on the general theme of 'time' and how it is, was, or could be experienced in the future. After visiting the site several times I decided a performance in real time for an extended duration would be a challenging response to the invitation. I did the acutal performace one month before the opening of the exhibition and only 2 people at the school were made aware of my plans. Everyone else at the school were to be a part of the performance.
Everyday for one month I arrived at the front of the school at the exact same time, wearing the same clothes and sitting on the same step. Then as the students began to arrive, I began my performace of a pre-set routine of simple everyday actions. I smoked a cigarette, took sips from my coffee, looked to the left, stretched my leg, adjusted my hat, red the same 5 pages from a book and underlined the same passage etc... Although appearing to be moving and acting in a completely natural and spontaneous way I was in fact, with the aid of a pre-recorded and time audio track on headphones, completing the exact same actions and gestures everyday at exactly the same time. For one month I entered into the normal daily routine of the people around me as a background element... a small anonymous deja-vu experience.
During this month I had 7 days of this performance video taped from across the street, this is what was exhibited, and the effect of each video shows me moving in synch with myself from monitor to monitor. Everything else around me is different...the people, the weather, the light, the traffic etc...

Hiccup #1

installed @ The Power Plant. Toronto, Ontario
as part of the exhibition "Stretch" / June-Sept 2003