A Brief History of the Damagomi Group (fragment)
2013 - ongoing
The Damagomi Project recounts the history of the fictional Damagomi Group; a group of spiritualists and academics that was active in Northern California from the 1920’s until the late 1970’s. The project has the form of archive which consists of an ever expanding series of works that piece together the history of the group.
The archive includes documentation such a historical texts, photographs, films and artefacts as well as re-enactments of experiments allegedly carried out by the group. Currently the archive consists of 3 larger installations that reenact experiments of the group as well as a number of reels of reconstructed 16mm film footage, a number of photographs and prints, single artefacts such as ritual objects and costumes and a large number of drawings and sketches and a 40 minute docu-fiction video A Brief History of the Damagomi Group.
I use both actual historical as well as fabricated documentation in the project. Some of the characters who play a role in the group are historical figures and some are invented. I also use a number of historical sites as backdrops for documentation of alleged activities of the group and situate re-enactments of these activities in these same locations. The line between the originals and reconstructions is purposefully kept ambiguous and they are used interchangeably throughout the project.
The archive and story of the Damagomi should not only generate the feeling of authenticity, it must become its own authentic world in which a distinct logic defines the parameters of the work being made within it. Thus the central quest of the Damagomi; to find a ‘non-anthropocentric form of communication with the natural world’ is also the goal of the project. In this sense the archive represents a series of thought experiments in physical form that try to approach the seemingly impossible task of stepping out of our own human perspective.
Fragment from A Brief History of the Damagomi Group
16mm/ digital video, 2014, total length 26 minutes (6 minute fragment)
The film A Brief History of the Damagomi Group combines a number of different sources of from the archive, mixing archival footage, historical locations and fictional narratives to create a suggestive portrait of a utopian project that never came to fruition.
A full length version of the film can be seen upon request.
Still A Brief History of the Damagomi Group
Still showing interview with Oberon Zell-Ravenheart in A Brief History of the Damagomi Group.
Still from A Brief History of the Damagomi Group
Still from A Brief History of the Damagomi Group.
Still from A Brief History of the Damagomi Group
Still from A Brief History of the Damagomi Group
Still from A Brief History of the Damagomi Group
Still from A Brief History of the Damagomi Group
Damagomi Archive #17a, photograph
Damagomi Archive #17a, , 36 x 57 cm, digital print, 2013
Damagomi Archive #21a, photograph
Digital print
Still from A Brief History of the Damagomi Group
Still from A Brief History of the Damagomi Group
The Field Experiments (fragment), 2014
'The Field Experiments' is a series of three 16mm film that show documentation of Damagomi Group experiments. Each experiment comes from a different historical period of the group covering the early (1930's), middle (1950's) and late (1970's) periods of the groups activities. The fragment shown if from third part of the series 'Field Experiment 3; Chant of the M-radiation'.
The Damagomi Project at Nest, The Hague
Gallery view of solo exhibition The Damagomi Project at Nest, The Hague January to March 2015.
The Damagomi Project at Nest, The Hague
Gallery view of solo exhibition The Damagomi Project at Nest, The Hague January to March 2015.
The Damagomi Project at Nest, The Hague
Gallery view of solo exhibition The Damagomi Project at Nest, The Hague January to March 2015.
The Damagomi Project at Nest, The Hague
Detail installation Lab Experiment #3, Matsa'apla at the solo exhbition The Damagomi Project at Nest, The Hague Jan. to March 2015.
Damagomi Project at di Rosa, Napa
Gallery view of artefacts and A Brief History of the Damagomi Group (audio version) at di Rosa, Napa.
The Damagomi Project at di Rosa, Napa
Gallery view of artefacts and Field Experiment #2 Mobile M-Radiation Unit at di Rosa, Napa.
The Damagomi Project at di Rosa, Napa
Detail of Field Experiment #2, Mobile M-Radiation Unit at di Rosa, Napa.
The Damagomi Project at SurvivalKit 8 Riga
Exhibition view of single channel video A Brief History of the Damagomi Group and various artefacts during SurvivalKit 8 Riga.
Damagomi Project at SurvivalKit 8 Riga
Exhibition view of installation Biotron I during SurvivalKit 8 Riga.
The Damagomi Project at SurvivalKit 8 Riga
Detail installation Biotron I at SurvivalKit 8 Riga.