I find great joy in writing poems, recording music and documenting gestures. I especially enjoying putting these elements together in an effort to create a unique visual language that investigates, celebrates and builds upon personal experience. Tape Number One is an incomplete monument, a documentary continuously being built upon through bits of poetry honoring the past. Enjoy.
Instructions for Creating a Snow Angel:
First, find an undisturbed area of snow larger then the size of your body. Second, gently position yourself face-up into that plane of snow. Third, sweep your legs from an open position to a closed position and move your arms up and down creating troughs in the snow. This step should be repeated until you feel the indentations are deep enough to be easily viewable from above. Last, carefully remove yourself from the mark, not to disturb your masterpiece. When finished, your performance should have left the appearance of an angel, the movement of the arms having formed wings, and that of the legs having formed a robe or a gown.
TRACK FIVE: song for movements of a snow angel – TRT 6:38 mins
video & music: written, recorded, performed and edited by T. Becker | 2011 | found film footage from Prelinger Archives
Tommy Becker attended the San Francisco Art Institute as an undergraduate before receiving his MFA in Film, Video, Performance from California College of Arts in 2001. A poet trapped in a camcorder, Becker continues to feed video poems into his never-ending saga, “TAPE NUMBER ONE”. The video work for Tape Number One blends poetics, performance, costuming, found footage, hand made props and home made music. Each track is presented as a song dedication, the videos run song-length, never more then four minutes. Within this duration, musical elements surface as background music or simple tones, but more characteristically within a unique voicing that flirts with elements of melody, repetition, rhythm and sustaining tones in its delivery of the spoken word. Often, Becker’s work is translated into live spoken word/video performances. In 2005, he was awarded an artist in residency at Headlands Center for The Arts and included in Bay Area Now 4 at the Yerba Buena Center for The Arts. His work has been presented at White Columns, New York; Aurora Picture Show, Houston and Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY as well as numerous experimental film festivals.
Tommy Becker – San Francisco CA
17 Days Video Series 