DEVILLE COHEN | PS122 GALLERY

Nov 12

Installation view of *Hand to Mouth: DE-SUICIDE*, October 21 - November 21, 2021 at PS122 Gallery. Courtesy of the artist.

DEVILLE COHEN

HAND TO MOUTH: DE-SUICIDE

PS122 Gallery

october 21 - november , 2021

Introduction

PS122 Gallery presents DE-SUICIDE, a new multichannel video installation and sculptural environment by Hand to Mouth, a non•disciplinary company of sentient and inanimate collaborators founded by visual artist Deville Cohen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Integrating Cohen’s studio and performance practices through a process of collaboration (remotely and in-person), the video and objects in the installation are the result of a yearlong process of workshops with other artists and institutions, including dancers Laura K. Nicoll (NY), Margaux Marielle-Trehoüart (Berlin), Tushrik Fredericks (Johannesburg/NY), and Effie Bowen (NY); guest dramaturgs Patricia Hernandez (NY) and Bronwyn Lace (Johannesburg/Vienna); musician JD Samson (NY); and partnerships with Summer Guthery of JOAN Los Angeles and Ian Cofre of PS122 Gallery.

Working interdisciplinarily between sculpture, moving images, and dance, the company is an attempt to find a more egalitarian system for balancing the hierarchy between humans and nonhumans. Physical objects, materials, and gadgets are not just instruments or props but equal partners, inanimate collaborators forming a coalition with human performers and encountering the risks, damages, and potentials of their environment. To DE-SUICIDE is to become WITH rather than to follow our settler-colonial histories and claim ownership of resources, people, and land. Being WITH, rather than owning and dominating, is to follow the sculptural sensibility of crafting materials into objects. Whether in the studio, backstage, or in a dance video, bodies and objects hybridize in the act of cohabiting the scene.

Artist Climate Approach

The name of the company and the project—Hand to Mouth: DE-SUICIDE—reflects on economic struggle as a metaphor for production and survival. Beyond its poetic and economic meanings, we approach the phrase self-reflexively and self-critically to examine the interconnected economic, social, and environmental crises facing us.

The installation and sculptural environment consist of props that were used in workshops and performances for the videos produced. No shipping was necessary as all props and sets were created in my studio and during a temporary five-month residency at PS122. To make them, I reused materials from previous projects: domestic items, packaging (bamboo skewers, feta cheese and oatmeal containers, etc.), and photo production leftovers from my day job as a prop stylist assistant (seamless inner cardboard tubes, foam core packaging, etc.). Most purchased materials were used for architectural models and came from local art supply and hardware stores.

I adopted a barter mentality to source the materials for the installation. I strategically reached out to friends saying, “For economical and ecological reasons, before I go and buy new xyz, I thought you might have some laying around.” I knew I could get leftover wood from my friends with a woodshop, equipment for the fountain from my friends with gardens, and nerdy tech stuff, like overhead projectors, DMX controllers, and access to fancy light control software, from my nerdy techie friends.

In a way, we benefited from the travel limitations imposed by the pandemic. Generally, I collaborated with other artists locally, but when we did not share the same locality, we worked together remotely. These circumstances presented the opportunity to collaborate with cinematographers in three cities, and the variety of locations and techniques gave form to the project and enriched its aesthetics. In a previous reality, we would be unable to afford travel for all the collaborators and hesitant to do so because of carbon emissions. This would mean making compromises and introducing frustrations into the process.

Working on this project independently with the support of grant-dependent nonprofits made explicit the various uncertainties and difficulties of financing and labor. During the pandemic, we had only modest success fundraising independently. Furthermore, everyone on the team took on more responsibility and invested time, energy, and resources that could not be fairly compensated.

As I develop and execute the work, I aspire to share the responsibility for the process, its outcomes, and its impact with collaborators and audiences—in the studio, backstage, and on stage—in order to create a more transparent and fertile environment. This project has shown us once again how much invisible and unaccounted labor goes into the creative process.

Gallery Climate Policy

PS122 Gallery is committed to a climate-conscious present and future.

PS122 Gallery is a not-for-profit alternative exhibition space in New York City’s East Village operating since 1979. It is an ongoing program of Painting Space 122 and is co-located with four other organizations in the city-owned 122 Community Center (122CC), a historic former public school that underwent a six-year renovation and received LEED Gold certification in 2018 as a result.

PS122 Gallery and Deville Cohen share a commitment to reduce our waste, reuse and recycle materials, and conserve resources. Cohen helped the organization carefully consider and become transparent about its carbon emissions, encouraging thoughtful solutions to further reduce climate impact and waste. For example, during DE-SUICIDE this included the retention of materials throughout different stages of the project, rainwater reuse, and offsetting electrical needs by removing gallery lights for the duration of the exhibition.

Notably, the project continually embraced the limitations presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, without which its final form would be very different. No international flights were needed to complete the project, online and remote collaborations were routine and successful, and social media and virtual screenings expanded the project’s reach. This brings to the fore areas where there is room for improvement, such as the typically unquantifiable hidden cost and carbon emissions generated by the computers and servers that facilitated the project’s online presence, production, and editing, as well as our virtual connections. PS122 Gallery pledges to further its climate-conscious activities motivated by Cohen and Hand to Mouth and to support future transparency in all phases of project development.

Emissions

The artist participated in a temporary residency in the gallery space for five months during the COVID-19 lockdown, from December 2020 through April 2021. The work was exhibited for approximately one month from October to November 2021, resulting in a total of 6 months of building energy use. Based on previous years’ energy bills and then calculating the amount of space in the building occupied by the project, the average carbon emissions related to the building’s energy use during this time would be 0.05 tCO2e each month, resulting in an estimated 0.3 tCO2e during the 6 month project period.

The artwork directly consumes a maximum of 7.87 kWh in electricity daily through its electrical components. The exhibition will run for 20 days, resulting in approximately 0.03 tCO2e due to the artwork’s electrical components.

Emissions were calculated using the Gallery Climate Coalition carbon calculator. This calculation does not account for emissions related to local travel, food consumption, or other areas of emissions.

Total Calculated Carbon Emissions: 0.33+ tCO2e

Waste Report

Using a material afterlife checklist, we categorized the destination of materials used in the exhibition:

Repurpose:

Items can be repurposed and reused for another project:

Ladder
Wood
Scrim
Fountain/garden sprinkler
Red bucket
Silver bucket
clamp lights (9)
Water
Props/sculptures
Clips
Clamps
Extension cords
Tension pole
Costumes for dancers
Silver fabric for blackout curtains
Ikea bag
Chairs (6)

Reuse:

Items to be reused for the same purpose as their original use:

Speakers (2)
Laptop
Fog machine
Video projectors (2)
Motors (5)
Overhead projectors (3)
Slides projectors and slides
DMX controllers

Refuse:

Item was not used at all and potential waste was avoided:

Fossil fuels consumed by international travel

Landfill/Waste

Items sent to a landfill or otherwise considered waste:

Gaffer Tape
Cable ties
Fog machine liquid

Thank you to Deville Cohen, Laura K. Nicoll, Ian Cofre, and PS122 Gallery for supporting this Climate Impact Report.