17 Minutes is a performance and video blog project. It is estimated that someone commits suicide every 17 minutes. For each performance I spend 17 minutes standing outdoors next to a tree. At the end of this 17 minutes I fall to the earth. This ritual offers a place of reflection, the time between. It also deals with the specific circumstance of my own brother’s suicide and as a reenactment aims to be reminder of the life with which I am engaged.
Chris Barr is an artist and designer concerned with interconnectedness, patterns of social behavior, and intimate communication. His work spans various media including networked performance, installation and video and has been exhibited internationally and nationally, notably at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, The Lab in San Francisco, and Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (Spain). Chris currently serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Design at West Virginia University.
Chris Barr – Morgantown West Virginia
17 Days Video Series 
It is extremely sad to me that every 17 minutes someone commits suicide in the United States. One of things that I really like about this video’s communication of that fact is that everything around Chris standing is still moving as usual, just as we go about our days most likely not realizing how many people have killed themselves throughout our day. It also speaks to how the people who kill themselves may feel before doing so – Chris is representing them, and how they feel isolated, alone, and separated from the busy world around them. I think that the video is important because the message is important, and this suicide epidemic in the U.S. needs more attention and openness than it is currently getting.