Proposal: Spectrum of Inevitable Violence

Caitlin Berrigan

Describe Your Idea.
In the midst of heated global discussions about economic and social structures, I am reaching out to wide publics to realize an upcoming video installation and participatory event that is in dialogue with many of these issues. The project, Spectrum of Inevitable Violence, will be part of the deCordova Museum’s 2012 biennial, curated by Dina Deitsch and Abigail Ross Goodman, with the support of the Boston Center for the Arts.

‘Spectrum of Inevitable Violence’ is an artwork to address unresolved and elusive forces in cultural and spatial politics. The surveying, mapping, and catharsis of class dynamics come together in this
participatory work. I hope to offer new ways of looking at class structures, one’s position and assumptions about other people. Emotions of anxiety, misrepresentation and the inadequacy of language are channeled into a battle—a class warfare food fight.

The battle provides an outlet for all these tensions that lie below the surface of language, and for the failure of survey and analysis. Yet the enemy lines are mangled and indecipherable. The inadequacy of language explodes into a spectacular mess.

Accompanying the event will be an installation of looping video tableaux, depicting people’s personal stories about class tensions, anxieties, and strategies of subterfuge. For the production of the videos and other exhibition material, I am soliciting people’s anxieties about social class. Exemplary incidents; present naggings, ancient family frustrations, your parents’ anxieties—anything. Visual, specific and descriptive stories are best!

How will you use your grant?
Any and all funds I can raise will be used to pay people to work on a video crew—props, site rentals, transportation of people and stuff to and from sites, pay or feed large groups of people to appear in the videos.

What is the expected status of your project by the next Feast?
The videos will be complete in January and will be on view at the deCordova Museum and at the Cyclorama in February when the Spectrum of Inevitable Violence is to take place. All are invited to take part in the class warfare food fight. It will be free, filthy and spectacular!