The Border Projects: 8.7 Mile Walk
8.7 miles
the length of the Philadelphi Corridor
walked on July 10, 2015 in the LeRoy Neiman Center
with Ana Morales, Alissa Chanin, Fatma Al-Remaihi, Michael Cunningham
As part of an exhibition that featured my video Gaza, January 3, 2009, which depicted the Gaza tunnel bombings, I walked the length of the Philadelphi Corridor, an area of land along the Egypt/Gaza border where the tunnels had been constructed. This walk was conducted inside a gallery space, walking in circles around the perimeter of the space for about three hours. I invited several guests to walk with me and have a conversation.
Through conversation and developing relationships with one another, we can begin to model what it means to genuinely care about each other; this is possibly the greatest solution in any conflict. The conversations were not directed in any way. From the collected audio of our conversations, I edited the words into the text below. The text was printed and hung at eye level around a gallery space so that the viewer would have to mimic our circular walking to see/read the piece in full.
Conversation I
What about the noise?
The other part of me doesn’t want to be that explicit. I want to focus more on the feeling part, not the facts. People keep asking me what I’m trying to say. I don’t know. Sometimes I’ll say one thing to one person, and the next day I’ll change my mind. I decided I’m not going to worry about being clear right now.
Just make work. Still thinking about the diabetes message?
I want it to remain a thread in all my work even if it’s not a big part.
Explicit. That’s something I’m thinking about with the walking project. What is it about? What do you want to say? It can be really frustrating. But you can say whatever you want to say.
I thought, I’m not going to cry. I’m not going to cry.
The church was burning.
And the part about your brother.
It wasn’t just self-indulgent. You spoke so well and clearly.
I couldn’t breathe. I thought, I’m just going to keep looking down.
Empathy as a skill.
That set the tone for the emotional part of it, and then you add into it race and class. The night before we watched the movie The Square about Tehrir Square.
So powerful to watch.
I couldn’t breathe. I thought, I’m not going to cry. I’m not going to cry.
We come from these two different worlds and they combined into this other thing.
It goes back to this project for me, where I don’t want to... It’s unbearable to look at. I just felt like helpless. This is happening right now. And I’m going to bed with my fluffy blankets.
The other part of me doesn’t want to be that explicit.
I like the gold paint.
I do too.
Explicit.
I made a video, Ana’s seen it.
So powerful to watch.
I only know of you as a painter and a writer.
I’m not making paintings right now. I’m painting but not using paint.
But you can say whatever you want to say.
You really hear the sound of the water very clearly and see the reflections and light of the water. You mostly just saw her legs and her crotch and her stomach and the way her body was moving through the water. A few times you could see right above the surface. It was beautiful. At times I felt a little suffocated.
I couldn’t breathe.
What about the noise?
I love the sound of the water.
What about the noise?
He would draw a woman on a tangerine and say that it was his daughter Louise, and when he peeled it, he would put the different parts of the body in a particular place on the fruit so that when he peeled it, the white fleshy part came out at the point of the sex. He said, “I used to think this was my daughter, but indeed it is my son,” at a table full of people. Louise would be mortified. I loved it as soon as I heard it.
Is that what you were doing with the oranges the other day?
Or just something that isn’t necessarily cared for in the kind of way that really I’m doing nothing but thinking of it and feeling heartbreak.
It’s unbearable to look at.
People trying to be good people to other people.
Empathy as a skill. That’s really what it feels like right now. Thinking of myself as a speaker and a listener.
The box, which is a mattress, but it’s not a mattress it’s a box. It’s on the floor; it’s the size of a full size mattress. It’s completely hollow; you have to get on your back on the floor to slide into it. In there I lay, I talk. I listen.
To who?
If people come in to the room. If they don’t, myself.
What about the noise?
So the empathy comes in listening?
So the empathy comes in that it’s the skill of speaking and listening. It isn’t a skill that we’d call a medium in art or a skill of art making.
I’m really thinking it is more and more.
It’s kind of a piece, like Rodney said when Molly was talking about the medium pushing back. I kind of let the medium serve me. She came inside the box and she smelled like cigarettes. The cardboard was about an inch from our noses.
I couldn’t breathe.
We come from these two different worlds and they combined into this other thing.
She was laying there?
Yes, in the box, side by side. Talking about the intimacy of the bed. It’s staged to look like a bed; it has a white sheet on it. It feels most like a bed when someone’s in there with you; it’s like that sleep over thing, the excitement of sharing a tiny space with somebody; things can be said in a whisper that you wouldn’t dare say outside. I would love to have you there.
It sounds like exactly what I’m interested in.
Empathy as a skill.
It’s saying I can’t move every year. I can’t keep doing this.
We had signed a lease at this awesome spot in Hastings in Westchester. It was a long time coming, really great space. It was advertised on craigslist as a honey moon suite. Perfect, we’re in love. And then they turned out to be crooks, and they took our security deposit which was two month’s rent on top of the rent we had already paid, which is a lot right now. We had moved from a furnished studio to an unfurnished one bedroom; that means bedroom furniture, living room furniture, dining room table. We had five days to move. We thought, okay, U-Haul whatever can fit in a storage unit, which now we have to pay for. We took the most expensive things, the mattress, the box spring. Everything else got trashed. We could move into my friend’s dad’s garage in Delaware. It’s still warm; we can be together. We can move out in the next two months. We can find another job in New York. And it never happened. We stayed there the whole year, and it was very dark. Very dark. We knew we had to get out of there, but we didn’t know how.
Empathy as a skill.
When things happen easily I question them as if they are wrong. Sometimes when they are easy, it’s because it’s allowed to be easy. It doesn’t all have to be difficult and torture.
It’s unbearable to look at.
What can we honestly accomplish in the next two years? A lot. If we want to stay we can, but to leave in the next two years means we are not trying. We’re not building any roots. We’re not growing anymore. We’re just staying, and it has to be more than just staying. Meeting people. Is this also a community I can be a part of?
Because it’s not New York, and it’s not as cut throat, there’s less competition. More like, hey, what’s good for Chicago is good for Chicago.
It’s more like a community building thing.
What about the noise?
I tried to explain that to someone, and I couldn’t. But you just did it perfectly.
But you can say whatever you want to say.
Still thinking about the diabetes message?
The ones that are filled, we cut them and fry them. The other ones are more like French bread. They have a heartiness to them.
Like Belgian? I’m thinking of Belgian desserts. They’re not French.
It’s a pastry, something heartier. The recipe is based on an Amish recipe. So it would be closer to German, Dutch.
Amish. I was talking to Sebastian last night and he said, “I think we should raise our children Quakers.” I’m Jewish; he’s Catholic. He said, “You know, there are a lot of people in the Society of Friends.”
It’s more like a community building thing than a religion, even though it’s heavily based in it. It’s totally like people trying to be good people to other people.
These are the things he’s referencing. He said, “They should know that we come from these two different worlds and that they combined into this other thing.” He also never talked about having children so that was the only thing I was hearing. Whatever you want. Call them Quaker.
the length of the Philadelphi Corridor
walked on July 10, 2015 in the LeRoy Neiman Center
with Ana Morales, Alissa Chanin, Fatma Al-Remaihi, Michael Cunningham
As part of an exhibition that featured my video Gaza, January 3, 2009, which depicted the Gaza tunnel bombings, I walked the length of the Philadelphi Corridor, an area of land along the Egypt/Gaza border where the tunnels had been constructed. This walk was conducted inside a gallery space, walking in circles around the perimeter of the space for about three hours. I invited several guests to walk with me and have a conversation.
Through conversation and developing relationships with one another, we can begin to model what it means to genuinely care about each other; this is possibly the greatest solution in any conflict. The conversations were not directed in any way. From the collected audio of our conversations, I edited the words into the text below. The text was printed and hung at eye level around a gallery space so that the viewer would have to mimic our circular walking to see/read the piece in full.
Conversation I
What about the noise?
The other part of me doesn’t want to be that explicit. I want to focus more on the feeling part, not the facts. People keep asking me what I’m trying to say. I don’t know. Sometimes I’ll say one thing to one person, and the next day I’ll change my mind. I decided I’m not going to worry about being clear right now.
Just make work. Still thinking about the diabetes message?
I want it to remain a thread in all my work even if it’s not a big part.
Explicit. That’s something I’m thinking about with the walking project. What is it about? What do you want to say? It can be really frustrating. But you can say whatever you want to say.
I thought, I’m not going to cry. I’m not going to cry.
The church was burning.
And the part about your brother.
It wasn’t just self-indulgent. You spoke so well and clearly.
I couldn’t breathe. I thought, I’m just going to keep looking down.
Empathy as a skill.
That set the tone for the emotional part of it, and then you add into it race and class. The night before we watched the movie The Square about Tehrir Square.
So powerful to watch.
I couldn’t breathe. I thought, I’m not going to cry. I’m not going to cry.
We come from these two different worlds and they combined into this other thing.
It goes back to this project for me, where I don’t want to... It’s unbearable to look at. I just felt like helpless. This is happening right now. And I’m going to bed with my fluffy blankets.
The other part of me doesn’t want to be that explicit.
I like the gold paint.
I do too.
Explicit.
I made a video, Ana’s seen it.
So powerful to watch.
I only know of you as a painter and a writer.
I’m not making paintings right now. I’m painting but not using paint.
But you can say whatever you want to say.
You really hear the sound of the water very clearly and see the reflections and light of the water. You mostly just saw her legs and her crotch and her stomach and the way her body was moving through the water. A few times you could see right above the surface. It was beautiful. At times I felt a little suffocated.
I couldn’t breathe.
What about the noise?
I love the sound of the water.
What about the noise?
He would draw a woman on a tangerine and say that it was his daughter Louise, and when he peeled it, he would put the different parts of the body in a particular place on the fruit so that when he peeled it, the white fleshy part came out at the point of the sex. He said, “I used to think this was my daughter, but indeed it is my son,” at a table full of people. Louise would be mortified. I loved it as soon as I heard it.
Is that what you were doing with the oranges the other day?
Or just something that isn’t necessarily cared for in the kind of way that really I’m doing nothing but thinking of it and feeling heartbreak.
It’s unbearable to look at.
People trying to be good people to other people.
Empathy as a skill. That’s really what it feels like right now. Thinking of myself as a speaker and a listener.
The box, which is a mattress, but it’s not a mattress it’s a box. It’s on the floor; it’s the size of a full size mattress. It’s completely hollow; you have to get on your back on the floor to slide into it. In there I lay, I talk. I listen.
To who?
If people come in to the room. If they don’t, myself.
What about the noise?
So the empathy comes in listening?
So the empathy comes in that it’s the skill of speaking and listening. It isn’t a skill that we’d call a medium in art or a skill of art making.
I’m really thinking it is more and more.
It’s kind of a piece, like Rodney said when Molly was talking about the medium pushing back. I kind of let the medium serve me. She came inside the box and she smelled like cigarettes. The cardboard was about an inch from our noses.
I couldn’t breathe.
We come from these two different worlds and they combined into this other thing.
She was laying there?
Yes, in the box, side by side. Talking about the intimacy of the bed. It’s staged to look like a bed; it has a white sheet on it. It feels most like a bed when someone’s in there with you; it’s like that sleep over thing, the excitement of sharing a tiny space with somebody; things can be said in a whisper that you wouldn’t dare say outside. I would love to have you there.
It sounds like exactly what I’m interested in.
Empathy as a skill.
It’s saying I can’t move every year. I can’t keep doing this.
We had signed a lease at this awesome spot in Hastings in Westchester. It was a long time coming, really great space. It was advertised on craigslist as a honey moon suite. Perfect, we’re in love. And then they turned out to be crooks, and they took our security deposit which was two month’s rent on top of the rent we had already paid, which is a lot right now. We had moved from a furnished studio to an unfurnished one bedroom; that means bedroom furniture, living room furniture, dining room table. We had five days to move. We thought, okay, U-Haul whatever can fit in a storage unit, which now we have to pay for. We took the most expensive things, the mattress, the box spring. Everything else got trashed. We could move into my friend’s dad’s garage in Delaware. It’s still warm; we can be together. We can move out in the next two months. We can find another job in New York. And it never happened. We stayed there the whole year, and it was very dark. Very dark. We knew we had to get out of there, but we didn’t know how.
Empathy as a skill.
When things happen easily I question them as if they are wrong. Sometimes when they are easy, it’s because it’s allowed to be easy. It doesn’t all have to be difficult and torture.
It’s unbearable to look at.
What can we honestly accomplish in the next two years? A lot. If we want to stay we can, but to leave in the next two years means we are not trying. We’re not building any roots. We’re not growing anymore. We’re just staying, and it has to be more than just staying. Meeting people. Is this also a community I can be a part of?
Because it’s not New York, and it’s not as cut throat, there’s less competition. More like, hey, what’s good for Chicago is good for Chicago.
It’s more like a community building thing.
What about the noise?
I tried to explain that to someone, and I couldn’t. But you just did it perfectly.
But you can say whatever you want to say.
Still thinking about the diabetes message?
The ones that are filled, we cut them and fry them. The other ones are more like French bread. They have a heartiness to them.
Like Belgian? I’m thinking of Belgian desserts. They’re not French.
It’s a pastry, something heartier. The recipe is based on an Amish recipe. So it would be closer to German, Dutch.
Amish. I was talking to Sebastian last night and he said, “I think we should raise our children Quakers.” I’m Jewish; he’s Catholic. He said, “You know, there are a lot of people in the Society of Friends.”
It’s more like a community building thing than a religion, even though it’s heavily based in it. It’s totally like people trying to be good people to other people.
These are the things he’s referencing. He said, “They should know that we come from these two different worlds and that they combined into this other thing.” He also never talked about having children so that was the only thing I was hearing. Whatever you want. Call them Quaker.