Saturn Return
Performance with video & text
©1998 John Sturgeon
“Castle of Imagination-6”, Bytów, Poland, 1998
“World Image”, Kunstseminar-Metzingen, Germany, 1998
Teatro Arka, Cagliari, Sardinia-Italy, 1998
The content of the performance centers on issues of the father and the nature of fathering. A video projector features an enigmatic loop: a stone being thrown into a dark pool of water. Out of this tarn set with twisted branches, the face of the artist’s own father is revealed. Imperceptibly, the video reverses direction - sucking the stone back out of the pool into hands, waiting to cast it to water once again.
Dominating the performance with a sense of danger, a heavy bucket of water spins at the end of a rope suspended from the ceiling. After endowing each stone with a quality - of the father - Sturgeon tosses the stone across the performance space - splashing - into the circling bucket.
a stone's throw has so much weight
for to wait in stillness for a stone thrown to water
to be totally received
only a dense closed stone, sunken
has so much weight in silence
a stone, waiting for the stillness
to be complete
ask now - what fortress could hold that fast
this silhouette's chiseled edge,
savoring tragedy
from light?
Darkness
Water
Absence
Need
Obscurity
Silence
Bondage
Imprisonment
Roots
Rootlessness
Deepness
Inversion
Loss
Impotence
Fears
Failures
Lessons
Teaching
Emotion
Blessing
Bliss
Joy
Hatred
Love
Acceptance
Son
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
of the Father
