Interview with Jason Hanasik, whose work "Sharrod (Turn/Twirl)" was selected as part of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2013 exhibition. 

 

More on the Portrait Competition at http://portraitcompetition.si.edu

 

Jason Hanasik writes:

 

"I asked Sharrod to re-create a durational salute--something he learned at a mock boot camp during his summer vacation--for my video camera one winter afternoon. He agreed and stood, staring forward, saluting a superior 'ghost' for the better part of twenty minutes. At the end of the take, exhausted and fatigued, Sharrod turned slightly, while still holding the salute. I suddenly realized that my interest had more to do with the relationship of the salute to mimicry than the durational exercise.

 

As the sun set, we did two more takes of him spinning, slowly, 360 degrees while attempting to maintain the salute."

 

I realized somewhere between shooting and editing the footage that the military salute was, in many ways, a male equivalent of the endlessly spinning ballerina nestled in the jewelry box so many of my (female) childhood friends had sitting on their dressers.

 

 

---

 

"Sharrod (Turn/Twirl)" / Jason Hanasik / HD video (3:14 minutes), 2011 / Collection of the artist

 

Music: "Budding" by Broke for Free: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Gold_Can_Stay/Broke_For_Free_-_Gold_Can_Stay_-_01_Budding

 

 

Used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.