PURGATION OF NIKE a performance installation by ROBERT C. MORGAN

Posted on 22. Oct, 2009 by AdamWallace in Arts, LAB Gallery

The Lab (for Installation and Performance Art) was pleased to present the performance installation by Robert C. Morgan titled “The Purgation of Nike (1974-1984/2009)”. The piece is based on a 1984 professional studio recording of Morgan’s voice slowed down while reading excerpts from an old swim manual published in the late 1930s. The sound resembles a Tantric Buddhist chant and is the source that inspired the work.

PURGATION OF NIKE
by Robert C. Morgan
photographs by Adam Wallace

The space of the gallery was painted black, with a red glow in one corner and a large sand circle in the center. There was a steaming pot of water to one side, placed on an electric coil, lit with a halogen light. A rotating sequence of 20 digital images of the artists hands (photographed in 1974) were looped on two small monitors in the corner, and a large painting (1984) of a colossal leg rested against the adjacent wall, also lit by halogen.

The 30-minute performance took place Tuesday October 20, 2009 and involved the sound of the tape as Morgan marked the sand through a series of circular movements that constitute ideographic signs.

A collection of videos from the show: