performance — Jeremiah Barber

JEREMIAH BARBER

In this compilation of seven years of footage, I set up my camera at various locations along the Presidio coast within audible range of the Golden Gate foghorns and add my voice to as a third signal for incoming ships. There are seventeen foghorns with varying pitches along the coast, plus two foghorns on the iconic bridge—the difference between their tones allows ships to navigate between the piers. The harmonic third formed by the Golden Gate foghorns becomes the basis for my own vocal improvisations.

This piece was created when I lived in the Lower Haight neighborhood of San Francisco. Though miles from the bridge, the sound of the foghorns sometimes carried to my second floor apartment. Much of the footage comes from early, quiet mornings waking up to them.

The Advocate
Performance
Documented on HD video (color, sound)
TRT 12’21”
2013-2018

In a flooded and decaying basement, I carry a sculptural replica of my body made from rice paper and suspend it above a pool of water, lay below it, and set it on fire. The reflection of the paper body burning aligns with my body below the water, creating a moment in which both are consumed in flames. As the fire dissipates and body collapses, I emerge passing through a layer of ash.

Dreamburn is a physical manifestation of the disintegration of my belief in the evangelical afterlife that was the bedrock of my upbringing. A one time and unrehearsed performance, it held my intention—to take action, to have a hand in the destruction of faith—and carried it beyond what I could have possibly imagined. The fire advanced on my face. The ash coated my skin. The body I thought was in control was not. The replica in its own unspoken way revealed the fragility of the architecture of the performer underneath.

Dreamburn was created for “3020 Laguna Street”, an exhibition within a house that would later be demolished with the installations inside.

Dreamburn
Performance
Documented on HD video and 16mm film (color, sound)
TRT 7’51”
Installation 14'x18' with depth up to 24”
Rice paper and adhesive, wire, custom reflecting pool

Video by Rory Fraser
Film by Christian Gainsley
Sound by Ryan Malloy
Photo by Andy Vogt

I and my partner, the writer Ingrid Rojas Contreras, drag each other across the sandy dunes of Death Valley. One takes the other until utter collapse; we switch places and continue back and forth proceeding outward from the perspective of a camera looking across the desert floor. The discrepancy between our masses forces us to improvise momentum, grip and handholds. Performed one time for the camera, our action leaves an intricate pattern in the sand.

In Extremis
Performance with Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Documented on HD video (color, sound)
TRT 30’52”
2008

I call upon my father by pounding the ground.

Portrait of My Father Illuminated by Pounding Dry Ground (excerpt)
Performance, 6 minutes
Photographed by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
In a Eucalyptus Grove, 2009