Jacob Wolff

Jacob Wolff’s work and practice is heavily focused on the interdisciplinary. Specifically taking tropes of 20th and 21st century western art music and distorting and accentuating them using dance, theater, performance or visual art to highlight the strange and corrupt parts of the music. Wolff’s work also analyzes the effects of religion and academia’s effect on the human psyche and how it affects artists and the work they make. Wolff has just finished their opera entitled “Ribs” which is four years in the making.

Artist Location: Castaic, CA

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PARTICIPATION

soundpedro2024 CHARIVARI

On-site event June 1st

Process & Performance, Installation:
“Handler/Builder no.1”
Created collaboratively by Jacob Wolff, Julian Prins, and James McBride
“HB1” is a performance created by three people working in art handling, installation/de-installation of art exhibits, and fabrication. The performance is centered around the fabrication of three sculptures, using the same tools and materials we use in our everyday trade (i.e. power tools, wood, spackle, sheet rock,etc…). The piece brings into conversation the ethics of manual labor, as well as being a part of a workforce that is structured in high funded, art institutions.

These three sculptures are constructed using three different political systems (democratic, communist and socialist), in an attempt to find the most ethical process of production. The performance attempts to elevate the work of our day to day labor (and subsequently every working class person’s labor) by making a process that is usually the behind the scenes aspect of every art exhibit in the world, the art itself: catapulting it to the foresight of the viewer, making it the process the art itself.

The piece also touches on the issues of waste in the production of these exhibits. The overuse of materials such as wood, paper, and plastic. This is directly connected to gross consumerism as well as the climate crisis.

Structure
The piece is divided into the creation of each of the three sculptures, each sculpture being created in three parts.

Preparation and creating the plans: This includes preparing the space for construction or cleaning the residue from the previous sculpture. This is also the point where the three builders create the plans for the sculpture they are about to create. These plans are drawn and wood panels hung on the wall for the audience to see.
Construction: This is when all the building is actually happening
Handling: Once the sculpture is completed, the builders then put the piece on a dolly and wheel it off to the side.

After all three pieces are finished, all three are wheeled on stage and presented to the audience, completing the performance
There will also be two performers, separated from the space and actions of the builders representing more of a bodily, existential representation of what the builders actions entail. These performers also recite text to the audience such as: climate change statistics, political theory having to do with labor and the working class, reading from contractor manuals, and more.

Tools, Materials, and Tech used…
Hammers
Drills
Circular saws
Jigsaws
Dremels
Electric Sanders
Staple gun
Various wood Pieces
Dollys
Spackle and Spackle Knives
Painters Tape
Paint
Sheet Rock
Nails and Screws
PA system
Projector(?)
Drop cloth/Ram board (for floor protection)
Wood Pannels hung on the walls to draw the plans for each piece
PPE for audience members
Clip Lights