Bloodlines

a multimedia collaboration

Cocktail Hour I, 2010, Digital Color Print, 16 x 23” (unframed)

Ancestor! Ancestor! + Hero from Behind, 2010, Composite Digital Photograph, Ceramic, Wood, Silkscreen, Handsewn wool, toile and linen, installation variable, photo 16 x 23” (unframed)

Project Notes

This project explores ideas of historical fiction and applies them to personas based on an American revolutionary hero and a Dominican revolutionary radical both derived respectively from my family and my partner's family trees. By using the matriarchs and patriarchs of both personal and historical folklore I refashion their lives through objects that serve as heirlooms.

The revised persona are adorned with various accouterments specific to their disparate lives. I've fabricated works in ceramic and composite materials and created hand sewn costumes and improbable heirlooms; testaments and contrivances of and to their lives. Through drawing and silk screen I've created a taxonomy of images and objects of Molotov cocktails, guns, food, wine, plantains, a goat, decapitated heads, small figurative groups of picketers and protests, etc. Using photography and installation I've staged scenarios peopled with these objects, garments and images. All of these things compile to create the evidence of lives and an opportunity to subvert the historical narrative. These collections create a wunderkammer of secrets and stories; an invitation to explore and find ourselves within them.

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The Personas

Maria Isabel Rosario (aka Bibin), Dominican Republic

Many suitors pursued Bibin, as she was considered the most beautiful of her three sisters. Alas she was married and divorced three times; no man could satisfy her. She was dedicated to her children, her land and her sense of justice. She hated the dictator Rafael Trujillo, aka “el chivo” (the goat). You see el chivo coveted Bibin’s beauty and she consistently scorned his advances so he took her sisters and stole her land. She escaped into the rainforest and swore her revenge upon el chivo and all those who supported him. And everything that el chivo attempted to build or grow on her land was burned to the ground.

Bibin would pray to her protector, Saint Moira the patron saint of the separation of church and state and the protector of bold women. After blowing up a secret police station she would ask for forgiveness and seek protection for herself, her rebel comrades and pray for misery upon her enemies. Saint Moira had a special fondness for her and continues to watch over her many descendants and scorns the corrupt and powerful.

Fred Frelinghuysen, Flatbush, Brooklyn, United States

Fabulous Fierce Fred Frelinghuysen the Fashionable Lady-like revolutionary war hero squashed his adversaries. Fred and his compatriots under George Washington crossed the Delaware in the decisive Battle of Trenton. That winter was particularly bitter. Fred and his men were short on supplies and starving. You could tell where his troops by tracking their bloody footprints in the snow. They had been reduced to cooking and eating the leather of his boots. They were lucky to have hijacked a supply train in Camden and in it were pink satin and wool fabrics for the mistress to the commander of the Hessian mercenaries. Fred lovingly sewed new uniforms for he and his men. He always made sure they ate first. They adored him, and he adored them back. To motivate his men, he promised a hot meal for every Hessian soldier’s head his men could remove at Trenton. He stopped counting after 88. And while his men’s successful slaughter of the enemy brought a crooked smile to his lips, it was shooting Colonel Johann Rall that satisfied his sense of revenge. The colonel you see had publicly humiliated Fred, calling him a weak girlie-man. Fred was a fop and liked a bit of sausage on the side but the accusation of his lady-like inclinations are not what disturbed him, it was that the Colonel under estimated him as a fierce warrior. No one calls Fred weak and lives to tell the tale. Never underestimate a man who has nothing to lose.

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The Bloodlines Historical Society Installation

The installation of Bloodlines included wall text of various quotations and statements. The work was installed in small groups, each with its own heading, like a living graphic blog or magazine composition. Each of the groups were framed by headings. The exhibition was designed as a pseudo historical society installation with heirlooms, and stories, family and historical records. It even included playlists composed by a collaboration between Robinson and DJ Lament which explored the musical tastes of the fictional characters that the project was based on.

The devil follows me night and daybecause he hates to be alone.