Tommy Becker
The video work for Tape Number One blends poetics, performance, costuming, found footage, hand made props and home made music. Each track is presented as a song dedication, the videos run song-length, never more then four minutes. Within this duration, musical elements surface as background music or simple tones, but more characteristically within a unique voicing that flirts with elements of melody, repetition, rhythm and sustaining tones in its delivery of the spoken word.
At times, absurd visual elements pertaining to a characters’ situation, gesture or costume, contrasts with the blunt sentimental honesty of the voice. The tension between fiction and heartfelt truth, often leads viewers into the surreal as the work struggles to convey experiences of beauty or insight into our being. The act of giving, the championing of the wild, a celebration of the unknown, the search for happiness, the fragility of relationships, youthful rebellion, escapism and life’s impermanence, all have cemented a place on Side One.
Track Number One: song for a significant other, 1min 50sec, DV, 2005
After piecing together a yellow outfit from second hand stores, the simple act of jumping is turned into a performed act of giving as a figure struggles to transform himself into the sun. Track Number One was created as a belated birthday present for my wife. Now it is a gift to be shared with others, especially those who continue to radiate light through the amusement of their imaginations.
Track Number Two: song for the fate of animals, 2min 10sec, DV, 2003
Track Number Two is a celebration of the wild. It's a war chant heard bellowing from the mouths of animals as they march, fly and slither down the streets in protest. Images of the untamable flash across the screen as a stream of consciousness unfolds. A recited mantra drives the pack to the beating of tribal drums. Titled after one of his paintings, "song for the fate of animals" is dedicated to Franz Marc, an artist who expressed so much beauty before witnessing so much death.
Track Number Three: song for hellos and goodbyes, 2min 35sec, DV, 2010
This short video poem is dedicated to the fleeting relationships which so often percolate through contemporary life. "Song for hellos and goodbyes" leads viewers through the birth and death of a romantic relationship using the cliché lines of purchased gift cards. Within the script, a second voice emerges to reveal a more authentic picture as the relationship blossoms, sours and disappears.
Track Number Four: song for attachment, 3min, DV, 2002
In "song for attachment", we encounter a surreal, lo-fi presentation of the popularized Buddhist teaching of surrender. In a stark room, a young man struggles to overcome his anxieties of confinement with an eyeless rabbit. Failing to befriend the bunny, he turns inward in hopes of shifting perspective. The serene landscape painting on the wall fails to provide escape and we are left with a recited mantra as the rabbit towers above us.
Track Number Five: song for movement of cherry blossom shadows, 3min, DV, 2008
Track Number Five is an intermission. A meditation on impermanence. It's late afternoon when I begin my journey through the neighborhood. Attaching a cherry blossom branch to the grill of my car, I pull into my first driveway and stop. The branch begins to bounce. It casts a long shadow on the door. It gently comes to a rest. The car is put in reverse. The rythym is repeated.
Track Number Six: song for the brief seconds, 2min 20sec, DV, 2009
"Song for the brief seconds" pays witness to an overwhelming need to escape. The paths for departure seem endless. The desire to forget or place our consciousness elsewhere seems a necessity for our survival.
Track Number Seven: song for disobedient youth, 2min 35sec, DV, 2008
It's a natural response for teenagers to question and react against their cultural conditioning. Song for Disobedient Youth is an exhortation to embrace unfettered joy and chaos before the agonies of adulthood set in. It invites the viewer to momentarily indulge in the fantasy of youthful rebellion, self-discovery, recklessness, love, disregard, dream and contempt that continues to escape us as we are pulled further into the constructs of age and culture.
Track Number Eight: song for the bird in my backyard, 1min 50sec, DV, 2002
The bird feeder invites them. I try to minimize my proximity by moving my chair a few inches and turning into a statue, but in the end they always detect my presence. Not knowing my motives, they flutter away until I've reached a safe distance. I want to know their world, but that will never happen. The mystery keeps me marveling.
Track Number Nine: song for the untitled, 3min 40sec, DV, 2004
Track Number Nine is a celebration of the unknown. It's an embrace of the often obscured unity presented to us by the twisting opposites continually untangling in our fragile lives.