.

Marc Tasman

daily performances
Polaroid
1999-

Work made in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Boca Raton, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dead Sea, Haifa, Jerusalem, Louisville, Milwaukee, Montreal, New York, Tel Aviv, Toronto, Vancouver and various points in between.
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Eleven MonthsEleven Months video (3 min) exhibited in Destination 3: Collection / Repetition at MIAD's Gas Light Building Friday, October 24 and 25, 2003.

orderI'm Trying to Put -- I am Putting My Life in Order from project three in the [construct] performance series: document/obsess at Walker's Point Center for the Arts, November 15 and 16, 2002.


Enter a Slice of the Everyday A sample of Polaroids from the project started on July 24, 1999. Begin on September 8, 2001. Continue as far as you can by rolling over and off of the images. Click on the image to navigate to the next.

Wall of Polaroids July 24 1999-January 11, 2000. 36 images across by 12 images down, each held by one shiny thumbtack. Each image 3.5x4.5 in. Total installation approx.. 12 x 6 ft.

Jewish Superhero: Bleu Jew (Judischer Ubermensch) December 26, 1999. Spontaneous jumping on bed performance after receiving a gift from my mother-in-law -- blue long underwear. 5 images.

Felix Nussbaum: "It's hard for artists to survive these days." September 29, 1999. Felix Nussbaum was a Jewish painter living in Nazi occupied Germany and Belgium. He continued to paint until his murder in a concentration camp in 1944. 7 images.

Miserly Jew October 12, 1999. A meditation on a stereotype. 15 images.


Morning Prayers: Mitzvot; Tefillin and Tallis September 19, 1999. Religious rites performed. 7 images.


Deep Jew Sea (Don't Make Waves) February 7, 1999. A prescription for assimilation. Boca Raton, FL. Atlantic Ocean. 7 images.

Jew With A Gun, Call 911 September 13,1999. Inspired by the Bund, an early 20th century European Jewish militia.

Thank You Sir, May I Have Another Bagel? November 28, 1999. Jews in the Vietnam era U.S. Army? Don't ask, don't tell. 7 images.

Cult Leader January 7, 2000. 5 images.

Schlepper Le Lepper, Ironist March 8, 2000. A postmodern photographer who believes everything has already been photographed, yet there is always a need to flatten out wrinkles. 3 images.

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I began photographing myself with a Polaroid camera each day, consecutively on July 24, 1999. I was away from my spacious studio and living in a small basement apartment in Chicago. A small package arrived on that day, filled with 120 pieces of Polaroid SX-70 film. I intend to continue this process for a span of ten years.

Some days I think: "I'll put on a wig and dance around and become a character, and make my Polaroids for today." Other days I simply remember that I must make a picture and do so in the midst of some personal grooming.

This is a ritual act, performed daily, like an observant, religious Jew performs mitzvot, (compulsory acts that are simultaneously good deeds and commandments from God). While some performances take place in the presence of a live audience, many take place in solitude, with an imagined audience. The camera becomes a surrogate observer until the Polaroids themselves meet with live viewers.

There are few rational reasons for doing this. One is to document and observe my own face and body and its features as they bulge and shrivel; as hair grows and recedes. This work is a visual diary of my moods. A means of telling stories (my own, as well as others'). A sketchbook of sorts, from which ideas for paintings, performances, videos, animations, digital images, writing and websites spring. Proof that I existed. A desperate swipe at corporal immortality. A mystical jab at salable art in the gallery system. It is a discourse on identity. A way to process and digest reality and memory. A linear, unedited memoir in nonlinear times.