New Work: So American

I’ve created a new video piece titled So American. In the video, I am participating in three very American activities: making grilled cheese, playing Xbox 360, and taking a shit. While the activities could occur anywhere on the planet, I up the American ante by also singing the Star Spangled Banner in three-part harmony. Here are some stills from the video, but you can click on the image below and it will send you to the actual video on my website:

So American
video
2 minutes 23 seconds

The idea to do the video occurred to me only a few days ago, but it was one of those artworks that I had to get out of my body before I thought about it too much. I was taking a poop, which I often do, and I started singing the Star Spangled Banner out of nowhere (but to be honest, I sometimes sing when I poop). The song is actually a very difficult song to sing and so when I’m alone, pooping or whatever, I usually bust out something challenging since no one is around to hear me mess up. Then I thought it would be hilarious to capture this situation on video. But it seemed uninteresting to do just that.

I thought more and more about it and came to the idea that I could sing my national anthem while doing things that are typically American. I love when Conan O’Brien says, “and that’s why third world countries hate us”. Americans have a very wild lifestyle and so many opportunities to just do whatever. I have the time to play Xbox. I am eating a sandwich with fake Kraft cheese between two slices of crappy white bread. I’m pooping on a white porcelain toilet that flushes. Some people out there don’t have bathrooms. They have holes in the ground and no toilet paper. I just heard that snowstorms are messing up the trains in China and that half a million people are stuck in train stations on their only holiday vacation (for the Chinese New Year) of the entire year, and yet I am here with time on my hands to play a video game. So American depicts this leisurely American lifestyle, combined with my expressions as if I’m living some kind of difficult life. This is why third world countries hate us.

Then in regards to the bread, I saw this documentary on economic diversity in my Social Psychology in Film class that talked about bread. Did you know you can tell the relative economic standing of someone based on the kind of bread they eat? All your rich friends did not grow up eating white Wonder bread. Ask ‘em–they totally grew up with real whole wheat bread. In the documentary, it was so sad to see this poor old woman crumple up white Wonder bread and yell out, “this is not bread! it’s cardboard!” but that’s all these people could afford.

The title came from something I used to say a lot. I had a random dude stay with me through Couchsurfing.com (it’s not as scary as you think!) and he was totally a cool guy. He was from New Zealand and when we would hang out around the city, I’d point to a billion things and say, “that’s so American”. Backpackers always love to share stories, and when I tell my American perspective, I always giggle at myself.

The great thing about the video, now that I’ve watched it a few times and let it kind of take on a life of its own, is that the camera angles suggest that I’m in the same room with myself. I’ve never created a seamless video like this and I’m super stoked. Sure, I’ve capture clones in a room with a photograph, but never with these moving pictures you call Video…

This happens to be the second time I’ve used the Star Spangled Banner in three-part harmony. The first time was sophomore year of college, where I repeated myself singing, and dubbed three-part harmony over the video. I still have it, so I’ll try to get it up on the web sometime.

Well that’s that. Enjoy!

Links Cited:
Couchsurfing.com.