Please click here for an interview with John & Ben conducted by Indexical’s Andrew Smith.
Traces is a radical reframing of the American landscape and how those lands affect its inhabitants. The installation and performance focuses on three separate and connected, time streams and peoples: ancient Native Americans as represented by the Mound building cultures; the colonialist-era, as seen through the eyes of doomed, possibly syphilitic, explorer; and the 20th century, particularly during the 1960s. These eras are collapsed together, a concatenation of peoples and times into a singularity that roils and pulses. The land itself is a character in this drama: the fertile ground known as the Black Belt Prairie is a place for humans to congregate, utilize, and eventually foul. The Natchez Trace, an ancient through line in the landscape, is the pathway for this journey.
The traces of our history, whether marks on the land, written records, or stories that we tell ourselves, also contain what might have been, what was always there, or what will be there in the future. We can only construct, or deconstruct, this movement through time and ultimately where it will lead us.
The work may manifest in a variety of ways: a three channel video projection, a hanging sculpture, a series of photographs, a series of short stories, an audio work, and finally as a performance. During a performance, all of the elements are linked through sound and text, moving seamlessly through time. The video projections focus on landscape, maps, and ephemera with connective images and motifs running throughout. The audio collage includes interviews, field recordings, and music written specifically for the project. The photographs, taken by Rolleiflex camera, showcase ephemera taken during trips to the area. The hanging sculpture displays collected objects, a microcosm of the entire project.
An early version of Traces was performed at Indexical in Santa Cruz, CA, March 2023.