In Our Time

Gold, Eli Kabir

Publication

In Our Time

Gold, Eli Kabir

Abstract

In Our Time is an installation and performance. If you are viewing it outside of a performance time then you are only seeing the installation and the residue of the performers' work. Each performance runs for the duration of 10,000 heartbeats (approximately 2:15 hours) as marked in chalk by the artist on the central curved wall. The artist listens to his own heartbeat with a stethoscope while marking off the beats. The sound of the artist's markings is amplified into the space behind the wall. In that space there are four discrete actions being performed. One person runs on a treadmill. The next writes down thoughts, stories or memories evoked by the situation at hand. The third person is filing a sterling silver egg at a maple workbench; both the egg and the bench were made by the artist. Lastly there is a person playing solitaire, the game of waiting. The rock in the gallery is approximately 15 tons of Kansas limestone gathered in the months prior to the show from friends, farmers, gardens and construction sites.