This performance is a response to Heather Warren-Crow’s “Event Scores for Neanderthal Time VIII” where she states, “Design a beautiful watch that will never go out of style. Decide how much a new one will cost, in American dollars, in 2022, 2032, 2042, 2052, and so on, based on thoughtful projections of future inflation. Keep calculating until you reach the date when dollars will no longer exist. Keep on calculating. Keep on calculating. Keep on calculating. And so on.”

I took this situation and wanted to respond to it. The video-based performance had most of the action take place off camera, writing the costs on a pad of paper. You see the businessman slowly crouching, bending over to the right as he continues writing down the prices.

I wanted to highlight the contrast between the relaxation that is visible, and the effort or work that is not. People need to keep a relaxed tone to their work, otherwise they would make themselves or the company look bad. His facial expression may not show struggle, and so the bending over is the only signal of a struggle possible for the man. Also inspired by the “neanderthal” context, the bending is a limited movement that can describe an average worker, a neanderthal of the system doing only what is required by the job, with no personality or enthusiasm about the work.