Output details

Under Heavy Manners. (Video Installation). Artpace, San Antonio, USA. November 17, 2011–January 08, 2012

The American Sociologist Richard Sennet describes living with people who are different, whether racially, ethnically, religiously, or economically as the most urgent challenge facing civil society today. Fagen examined this premise and in particular looked at race as a perception of identity and at behavior of co-operation or interaction between people with perceived differences.

The outcome of this research resulted in the exhibition Under Heavy Manners and in particular a work called Heavy Manners, a four-minute video loop projected in an open space carved out in the rear of the gallery by two black theater backdrops.In a series of very close shots, four actors of different race carry out what could be either a sacred ritual or medical examination. Arms join together and one pair of hands caresses and carefully inspects the other. Suddenly, the arms switch places and roles.

By positioning each character in the roles of both examiner and examined object, the perception of the viewer is complicated by the relationship between slave and master. As the hands move from being tender, to rough and the cycles repeat, the viewer witness an allegory of the depth and complexity of human relationships, in which the roles of caretaker, aggressor, lover, and victim are never exact and are always changing.

Under Heavy Manners was the result of a two-month residency at Artpace, San Antonio. Artpace invites museum curators and directors from across the world to select an International Artist in Residence. Fagen was selected by Russell Ferguson, who had been Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Programs, and Chief Curator, at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles and is now Chair of the Department of Art at UCLA.

Artpace was established in 1995 and previous International Artist in Residence include;Maurizio Cattelan, Jeremy Deller, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Anthony Gormley and Christian Marclay.