Post Titled: Joint Custody Project Berlin
You Can Never Go Home Again explained... (a bit)

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NOTE: IDEALLY THE VIEWER SHOULD LISTEN TO THE AUDIO WHILE WATCHING THE DVD PROJECTION AND VIEWING THE PRINTS ON THE WALL

so, in the flurry of the opening a few visitors had time to visit with the piece and listen to the audio- but off the top of my head here is what was going on from my point of view:
-the piece which Klaus and I (anonymously and not entirely blindly) created started off as just a sketchbook with some birds-eye view drawings in if from him along with a DVD of google map videos and photos,
-I returned it with screenshot print-outs, post-its and drawings of Superman (because his home planet, Krypton, was destroyed shortly after his birth); Star Wars quotes from Princess Leia (just before the destruction her home planet of Alderaan); and a drawing of a turtle with a text reference to the Talking Heads' song This Must Be The Place (Naieve Melody).

-I chose the black suited Superman to begin with. This suit has no cape, and is the clothing they wore back on Krypton. (Oops, not entirely true. His Family might've worn these but his comes from the "Death of Superman" storyline: "Following Superman's tragic death, the Eradicator Program transported his body to the Fortress of Solitude, where he was nursed back to health in a rejuvenation pod. Soon, the MAN OF STEEL returned to his role as Earth's defender, garbed in black!") It is just a sort of a black onezie (sp?) full-body leotard with the white "S" symbol, which is actually his family crest, -it doesn't stand for "Superman"- that was actually something that Lois Lane came up with- and coincidentally "Superman" starts with "S"- (I noticed that there was another painting in the show with a Superman "S" actually)...

the fotos: Klaus' imagery comes from photos of Berlin, images of Rebel Bases found online, and the photos of his family and friends.
my fotos are of my everyday life here in Berlin, odd cultural things (mostly American cultural exports sometimes altered in translation and transition) which I encounter, i.e.:


then also shots of a few people who are important to me- friends and family, and images I shot of movies on my television (mostly Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (because the rebels are being hunted down by the Empire: their base on the ice planet of Hoth is found and destroyed, they brush off their shoulders and move-on), Superman starring Christopher Reeve, and the series Battlestar Galactia- in which the characters' home planets are destroyed and they are in search of the mythical "earth")...


audio: Klaus' scrolling text from the DVD was read-aloud/converted into the computer-robot voice and burnt to a disc with my tracks. My audio consist of strange moments I have collected - recordings (since 2005)where I am either entering or leaving a country (i.e. United States, Germany and Iceland or around my Grandparents' house, which has been the one and only constant home-base throughout my life.) (*WhaH-NuwhaaH*)-oh, yea and there are some wierd soundbyted from Mitt Romney which i recorded off the radio the day before I permanently left the United States (Oct 2006). I didn't actually know it was him until just now when I re-listened to them because at the time he was not a prominent candidate yet

DVD and PRINTs: Klaus took his images and my photos/drawings/post-its and screenshots and mixed them with his in Final Cut to produce the DVD. I took our images then combined, collaged, printed, scanned, painted and re-printed them to produce the work stuck to the wall.

OTHER REFERENCES: throughout the BOOK and VIDEO there are references to A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (in Which Arthur Dent's home planet of Earth is destroyed and he goes on to wander the universe with a bunch of intergalactic weirdos; DON'T PANIC.), Chris Marker, the Beatles "In My Life" and some other things which I can't think of off the top of my head.

I'll get a bit sappy here for a second and just go ahead and say that I really loved working on this project, I loved my partner's ideas and patience and I even loved freaking-out a bit over the pressures of the new process- then kind of learning and falling in love with it just before it was over all too soon.


SPECIAL THANKS TO Jonny and Chris of
-FOUND Gallery Los Angeles
and the ladies of
RAAB GALERIE, BERLIN

ALL PARTICIPATING ARTISTS ARE NOW LISTED IN
THE JOINT CUSTODY PROJECT BLOG

(Alderaan.....................................................Krypton)

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