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SiteWorks: San Francisco performance 1969-85

80 Langton Street

Richard Alpert, Finger (2nd August 1975)

Geolocation

Description

This piece was a static installation. The room was in general darkness except for lights aimed at several areas in the space. An unidentifiable sound could be heard from the rear of the room. The first illuminated area approached upon entering the space showed the sentence “Chris – I went to the hospital – I think I cut my hand bad” alongside a knife and some bread. In the second spot was found a photograph placed on the floor. At the rear of the room was a spotlighted door out of which protruded my two fingers as my only visible presence in the room. As this area was approached, the sound of the space could be heard coming from an adjacent room through an open doorway and could be identified as that of a ball bouncing in a confined space. The lighting was set so that it was difficult to see into the room without entering it. Upon entering, the source of the sound, a tape recording playing, could be seen in the almost totally dark room. (Alpert 1976)