Like Clocks

2012

This project traces instances of Descartes infamous "clockwork metaphor" used to categorize animals as unfeeling automata or machines where it intersects with ideas of tears and crying. Concerned with delineating between animal, human, and machine, tears and crying seem of offer a possible mark of identity, but they can be interpreted as an indicator of emotion, or as a biological (mechanical) response to painful stimuli. The project includes "In-Animate" toys (a Perpetual Milking Machine and Crying Virgin Mary rabbit), bottles of tears, quotes, pages from The Velveteen Rabbit, and a loop of video excerpts from films such as Bambi, Clockwork Orange, Babe, and Bladerunner.

Colored pencil, ink, and watercolor on paper; alarm clock; vintage radio with projected video (approx. 2.5 min); clock motor; sculpted clay rabbit with fake tears; laboratory jars; book; framed Velveteen Rabbit illustrations; ceramic plate; vinyl wall text

Photos: Kiley Reed Black