July 23, 2003

Relief sets in when Christine returns and agrees to stay on for the duration of the series. While that commitment was challenged many times (I was not always the easiest person to support, not always as gracious or organized as I could have been), her own interest in the relationship of pain to performative work seemed to reinforce her stamina in witnessing this contemporary ritual with notable immediacy.





Word was getting around. I got a call from a writer named Ryan Knighton. He asked if he could interview me for a peice in The Vancouver Sun. While he did warn me, it was a fasinating expereince to be interviewed about a visual peice by a man with less than 5% sight. That's Ryan on the chair. He said he throughly enjoyed the peice, but unfortunately the article took a slant that was difficult for me to stomach. He portrayed the work as 'Barbie Art', or his editors spun it that way. A lesson in talking to the media.





















In an attempt to get me past the pain, Christine coached me in the early days to use oratory expressions rather than physically flinching. Ryan's enjoyment of the work could have been due to this very auditory element that dominated the first half of the series.



The Sun photographer at work, capturing the howl from the previous image which ended up being a half page shot. Again, a lesson in dealing with the media.