Pumping
A Joel Tauber Project
The installation
1873
Los Angeles
6,000 people living in a semi-desert
Dreams of trains
Rumbling through the landscape
Ushering in “Civilization”, Christianity, and Economic Progress
Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects (installation photo by Robert Wedemeyer)
A massive government handout
The Southern Pacific Railroad seizes it
and commandeers the City
Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects (installation photo by Robert Wedemeyer)
Bribes
Propaganda
Squashing of rivals
Escalation of freight prices
Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects (installation photo by Robert Wedemeyer)
Pullman Strike
Adamski Gallery (installation photo by Martin Zellerhoff)
Army quells strike
Trains
Tracks
Infrastructure
Proclamations of paradise
Migration
Rapid growth
Sprawl
An exciting city emerges
A powerful railroad facilitates and shapes its growth
The installation at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects (December 2010 – January 2011) was comprised of three film / video projections, eighty feet of train tracks, a giant metal “filmstrip”, eleven photographs, and a handcar sculpture. The project was later presented at the Adamski Gallery in Berlin and the Hanes Gallery at Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, NC) as 3 video projections (without the other photographic and sculptural elements).
The film
A lonely figure rides his handcar through the desert. He hauls his precious jug of water. Ominous memories of oil pumping continually haunt him. Shot with a hand-cranked camera, “Pumping” collapses time, as it contemplates big industry and our relationships with finite resources.
6’22″. 2011. Surround Sound or stereo. 16mm film transferred to HD video. 16:9. 1080P/23.976.
Official Selection: Atlanta Film Festival (2012) & Louisville’s International Festival of Film (2011)