CarianaCarianne interview

December 4th, 2007 John Posted in Art, Interviews |

A lot of artists study the idea of duality, but none so close to their own lives as CarianaCarianne.

CarianaCarianne are artists whose canvases are not the usual ones — nor are they necessarily tangible. These artists are in collaboration as an artist, the idea being that two people share one body and create work examining that reality.

That’s why in talking about CarianaCarianne, it can be considered more appropriate to use “they” instead of “she,” two artists instead of one artist. That is, it’s most appropriate if you buy into her conceit. And why wouldn’t you? What’s the point in not?

The artists make their statement through what might best be described as performance art, which has included creating a legal last will and testament for CarianaCarianne and becoming a notary public together. Their installation work utilizes documents, charts, and other media to document their dual entity status — it can often appear to be a wing of a research facility as much as an art installation.

CarianaCarianne’s work is currently on view at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, with an upcoming show at the Chicago gallery of University of Illinois of Urbana-Champaign.

JM: You utilize a lot of apparent scientific technique in your presentation. I’m curious wherein your interest and/or experience lies in the area of science.

CC: One could say that the installation of drawings and prototypes does look scientific. We are interested in the act of invention and creation. One interesting aspect we love about this work relating to science is that in the philosophy of science one does not really ever “prove” an idea or hypothesis, but instead one simply “fails to reject it.” On a personal note, for 11 years — from 1991-2002 — we worked as a patent draftsperson for independent attorneys, corporations, and law firms. Legally registering a patent is considered a form of public service. Once an invention is patented, the patent holder receives exclusive rights to make, sell, and authorize others to make or sell the patented product for 20 years. After 20 years, the intellectual property returns to the public domain as ‘common property’ for further creative pursuits. When this process involves the creation of life — as in our case — the legal system thus cannot reject the new life and must position that life as a public record.

JM: Could you talk a little more about double DNA?

CC: Double DNA is a natural occurrence. People born with two sets of DNA are considered to be human chimeras. Basically, there are more twins conceived than are actually born. Early on in many of these pregnancies, one twin will die and the other twin will absorb the DNA of the deceased twin. When the child is born, no abnormalities are present. However, the two sets of DNA live and coexist in the body. Many times the child will have what is called ‘mosaic’ skin where the two DNA have developed two skin types and a marbling of the two occurs. It is fascinating! It brings up questions about identity, definitions concerning the soul, and even race.

JM: I’m curious about eruv, as well, and this idea of a sacred barrier - and your presentation of it as endless and balled up. What led you to use the eruv in this way and how does this reflect your ideal of self as a concept, rather than something specific to you?

CC: We have a friend that is appointed by his synagogue to check the eruv in Chicago. It must be checked every Thursday. If the eruv is damaged, it must be fixed — special training is necessary for this responsibility. After inspection and any necessary adjustments or corrections are made, a message is recorded that all is well and that the community can enter the eruv on the Shabbat. Fellow community members of the synagogue call a specific phone number to listen to the recorded message. Our invention is to ingest a continuous line thereby filling the body with such a line. This line would then define the entire body — all of the organs, tissue, bones, skin, hair, etc. — as an allowable space for communal interaction.

JM: Was there a moment of epiphany where CarianaCarianne existed as an entity or has it always been this way in some form?

CC: We have always understood our body to comprise the both of us for as long as we can remember. We suppose that all artists create ‘their’ world or some variation of ‘how they view the world.’ We have always simply understood the world through a doubled lens.

JM: The video has you reciting an oath, which strikes me as interesting. Oaths imply a kind of allegiance that is required to make up for a kind of loose trust or lack of personal stake. Could you talk about that a little further?

CC: In March of 2005, we legally became a Notary Public in order to act as a witness to each other’s signatures. Oaths of Signature is a video recording of our first notarized act as an official Notary Public. Modeled after the Hippocratic Oath (the official oath taken by physicians as they vow to tend and heal all bodies), we vow to ‘faithfully admire the multiple territories of the body and attend to my [our] signature with a motive for sustaining life.’ This video was also part of a larger project that we did for the Drawing Center in New York City. In the project, Witness to a Social Drawing, we acted as each other’s legal notary as we prepared a legal peace accord and signed our names in contract. We produced subsequent notarized documents as we attempted to fulfill the agreements outlined in our peace accord.

JM: Rather than speaking about the differences that CarianaCarianne has with the rest of humanity - I’ve met few people who are two individuals occupying the same space - I’m interested in hearing about what you see as commonality between you and “the typical person.”

CC: We very much want to believe that everyone is two – the self as “observer” and as “participant.” Thinking this way, in terms of twoness, may even hold the possibility to help make better sense of the world. If everyone considered their body as a double entity then all of their actions and words would not only affect them but also the person, which resided with them. Violence would have to come to an end, transgressions would need to cease, tolerance would be viewed as “normal,” and trust would be considered essential to existence. Being two is truly how we understand the flesh, but it also how we learn to behave. In our view of the world, it is very possible that everyone is a double.

JM: As you explore in your own terms, I wonder what conclusion you have come to about the nature of self.

CC: Maybe ‘self’ is the threshold to ego and ‘selves’ is what keeps egos at bay.

JM: Since you have always you have understood your body to comprise the both of you, at what point in life did you begin expressing this to other people? How do you express it currently to other people outside of installations and performances?

CC: These are very personal and complex questions. The equivalent would be to ask you, how do you express being John to other people — which is multifaceted. An adequate answer to your questions would require a book-length response. With that being said, we have always been artists. We have always made art. We are no different from all other artists in that we create art in direct relation to how we view the world. Artists, in general, have a desire to transform what they think, feel, and imagine (internally) into an external visual scene, landscape, or manifestation. Of course, we do vary slightly from this example because we intend to both create and exist in our external landscape. That is, we do not create art as an expression of who we are, but rather our collaboration creates art that exists as a living entity. Thus, we create art that creates life — a doubled life. We are always thinking about what collaboration means and what kind of negotiable fields does a collaborative skin require. We rarely have clear understandings of each other and we are always motivated by that fact.