Five years ago James Drake began placing a banquet table set with candelabras, a white tablecloth, and a nice spread–turkey, potatoes, cranberries, wine–in wild areas of south Texas. Then, hoping animals would visit, he’d leave the table there with two cameras running. The result of that project is a 15-minute video triptych, City of Tells, on view along with Drake’s charcoal drawings at Rhona Hoffman. The video image on the left shows feral pigs nibbling at the food, then climbing on top of the table. “They ate the flowers, the candles, everything,” Drake says. In the middle image, wild boars pass in the background but never approach. And the one on the right, set indoors, shows a huge python slithering elegantly along the table, never even knocking over a candelabra–“Every square centimeter of its body is in constant awareness of its surroundings,” Drake says. The snake’s owner, a friend, offered the use of his home and his 18-foot Burmese python when he heard about Drake’s project. Because pythons eat only live animals, the owner put a rooster in the room during the taping, and the video ends with a face-off. Drake doesn’t show what followed–though he says the python did what pythons do.
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James Drake
One of the best art documentaries I’ve ever seen is playing this week at the Film Center. With a mix of styles Juan Carlos Martin’s Gabriel Orozco captures the playful spirit of the amazing Mexican multimedia artist. See Movies for more.
