Mule
8mm Film Digitally Transferred 2:35 – 2006
Mule is about resistance. Pulling a three hundred pound log encrusted with pressed tin became my metaphor for struggle. In this performance piece, forward progress on an inner city street becomes damn near impossible. The object that I move has been weathered by time. Extracted from deteriorating Baltimore homes, I am literally pulling the wreckage of past generations. In a struggle to move forward, every ounce of energy is utilized to create momentum. There is no end in sight. So with my body I pull and submit to task which lies ahead. Like a mule, I am a beast-of-burden, not focusing on the end, rather pushing forward with blinders and hoping that the poetry of my labor amounts to a pure meditation of what has come before and what lies ahead.
