Adam Overton: Hair.Ritual.No.38
photo by Stan Woodard
Video | ~30 min | 208 MB
Featuring footage of the simultaneous performances of Hair.Ritual.No.38 by Adam Overton, Borders, Exiles, Panics: Apologetics by Robert Cheatham, Richard Gess and Kevin Haller, and The Man In The Middle by Andy Ditzler.
Video by Blake Williams with additional footage provided by Robert Cheatham, Amazing Lizardo and Raphael Garcia.
Special Thanks to Nat Slaughter who controlled the SC patch for this performance
This performance was a part of the EAAA event I organized on September 16, 2002
called Electric Performance Art Night
Program Notes:
Hair.Ritual.No.38
Adam Overton
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This body is the Bodhi-tree,
The soul is like a mirror bright;
Take heed to keep it always clean,
And let not dust collect on it.- Shen-hsiu
***
I am two people.
I am the outer, corporal man who intuits and acts with an automatism unique.
I am the inner, rational man who thinks and decides with deliberation unhindered.
Inner and outer meet in a watery surface reflecting ego inwards, outwards, upwards.
I find the ritual of cutting my hair cleansing and liberating.
I find the ritual of cutting my hair pointless and empty.
Transformation in three easy steps.
Going nowhere in notime the same as I ever was.
***
The Bodhi is not like the tree,
The mirror bright is nowhere shining;
As there is nothing from the first,
Where can the dust itself collect?- Hui-neng
***
Adam Overton is a musician, composer and teacher from Atlanta, Ga. He currently organizes the Electric Arts Alliance of Atlanta and performs with the band Moreland Audio. He composes sound and music using the programming environment, SuperCollider (http://www.audiosynth.com).
overtones99@hotmail.com
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Notes and Commentary (not included in program notes):
The piece Hair.Ritual.No.38 was premiered on Monday, September 16, 2002 at Eyedrum for the EAAA's Electric Performance Art Night, an evening of performance art using electronic media. Robert Cheatham, Andy Ditzler and I agreed that for the final installment of the evening we would each perform our own individual pieces simultaneously in different corners of Eyedrum's gallery space. For my portion of the performance I would cut off my 4-month-old beard, my clothes and my full head of hair using three different cutting devices - scissors, an electric razor, and a Gillette blade - which were mic'ed with a contact mic, a telephone pickup and a contact mic, respectively. The cutting and mechanical sounds were sent to my iBook where a specially designed SuperCollider2.2.16 program then amplified and processed the sounds. The SuperCollider patch was directly controlled in realtime by my friend Nat Slaughter.
I am very interested in ideas that revolve around dualism, the coexistence of opposites, individual self-perception, and the perceptions of the audience and the performer. Eastern philosophy constantly reminds me of the coexistence of the seemingly opposing and uncompromising partners, yin and yang. I became even more intrigued with such dualistic notions when, while returning to Atlanta from my first trip overseas, a Customs official at the airport who spoke little English looked at my passport picture, then at me, and stated with a smile: “You are TWO people.” Without another word or glance he let me pass and I boarded my plane. I have no idea what he meant, but that phrase has remained with me, a strange, seemingly profound statement, perhaps from a higher power. Such duality seemed apparent upon having several depressive fits during the summer of 2002 when I realized very fully that I am in fact a host to two (and perhaps even more) Adam's: 1) the inner, shielded self, full of unseen, undealt-with emotional baggage, and 2) my outer, acting self, which typically broadcasts positive energy (a defense mechanism, perhaps), and that doesn't necessarily mirror the sort of inner activity or turmoil that might be brewing.
Earlier in the summer of 2002, after another failed attempt at romance, I decided to let my hair and beard grow out. After about three months I was ready to cut it all off, just as I had done so many other times before in an attempt to transform myself, to clean up and to be emancipated from my recent past - reborn. After some thought I realized that this “hair-ritual” would best serve as a performance piece, something that would challenge me as an electric artist while also challenging the audience and myself as we grappled together with several notions of public and private, and of the human (im)possibilities of transformation. I gave myself another month-and-a-half to continue growing out my hair and the concepts continued to evolve.
Performance of music has always tended to be very one-sided to me, with the audience watching through a window as if at something far away, something mysterious and unfamiliar, a common result of virtuosic performance. In this instance the audience was brought nearer to the act - this need of a transformative (hair) ritual is something that many people have themselves experienced and can directly identify with. In addition, my naked body served as a constant reminder of the very human, non-virtuosic (i.e. self-similar) creature that was performing a very private, yet familiar and clinical procedure.
In this piece the seemingly opposing notions of transformation and stasis, body and soul, are at play. The visual, physical reality of transformation is present, yet reason and logic instead try to convince us of the psychological idea of no-change (i.e. timelessness of the soul, manifestations of the infinite). Both views are correct and valid and one can quickly vacillate from one extreme to the other, like a fluctuating sub-atomic particle, resulting in a constant change in polarity, and hence an equilibrium.
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Side-note #1: As soon as I began growing out my beard towards the end of winter 2001, my bandmate Ben Davis began making fun of what he termed my “art beard”. He is particularly irreverent when it comes to official art communities or gatherings, and cited my beard as looking similar to those of other drummers-gone-art-y. It was an ironic experience later sacrificing this “art beard” upon the altar of public art performance for an audience of gallery dwellers - and with Ben in the audience.
Side-note #2: The quote of the night went to Steve Seaberg of the Seaberg Acrobatic Poetry Duo, who said afterwards: "At the beginning of the performance your cock was the star ... and by the end of the performance your nose was the star."