Works IF I could Roll

Dean Ebben

Works

If I Could Roll It Out of Me 1:02 minutes

I made this video at the end of a hot spell in Austerlitz, NY. The video is inspired by memories of childhood. Of things that were not difficult: rolling down a hill, or being uninhibited. In my video I am rolling on a flat plane after a rainstorm. My goal was to roll until I could no longer or it became to dark to record the video. Rolling on a flat plane took a lot of effort, it was painful and required a lot of exertion. I was also self-conscious of my body, which is more apparent in the beginning of the video, until I needed to use my body to continue rolling. The transformation from dusk to dark is important in the progression of time. The rain cleansed and cooled while the grass and earth abraded my body. In many ways this work is an exorcism, the act of rolling back and forth is a way to try and expel something from within, or conger memories of the past through the repetition of the movement. I composed the score in the video. It is a 20-piece gamelan, which I recorded in my kitchen, simulating the sound that might come from within my body as I propel myself from the past and into the future.

This video takes a simple light-hearted childhood act of rolling in the grass and changes it into something darker and less comfortable for the participant and the viewer.