0:00:07.388,0:00:12.345 [Janine Antoni: Milagros] 0:00:25.691,0:00:28.115 You know, a lot of people don't know 0:00:28.804,0:00:31.146 what the coccyx looks like, 0:00:31.146,0:00:34.502 but really, it's the site of our severed tail. 0:00:37.779,0:00:42.977 I love the cup of the sacrum and the cup of the hand, 0:00:42.977,0:00:45.218 as if they're about to shake hands. 0:00:46.913,0:00:50.251 So this is a very unusual--and impossible-- 0:00:50.251,0:00:53.650 coming together of two body parts. 0:00:55.018,0:00:58.789 The whole idea around this work was really about grafting. 0:01:00.882,0:01:03.189 When you graft one plant to another, 0:01:03.189,0:01:05.144 then they fuse together. 0:01:09.743,0:01:12.144 For years, I've been fascinated with 0:01:12.144,0:01:13.915 these things called 'milagros'. 0:01:14.175,0:01:16.746 They're found in Portugal, 0:01:16.746,0:01:19.113 in Spain, in Mexico, 0:01:19.113,0:01:20.544 and in Brazil. 0:01:20.722,0:01:22.912 The ones that people are most familiar with are 0:01:22.912,0:01:25.747 these small medallions that are shaped like 0:01:25.747,0:01:27.484 an arm, or a leg, 0:01:27.484,0:01:28.913 or a heart. 0:01:28.913,0:01:32.443 But they also have them in three dimensions. 0:01:33.519,0:01:34.863 The way they're used is that 0:01:34.863,0:01:36.420 if you have an ailment-- 0:01:36.420,0:01:37.682 if you have a problem with your foot-- 0:01:37.682,0:01:39.544 you would go and buy one of these, 0:01:39.544,0:01:41.150 and you'd take it to the church. 0:01:41.150,0:01:43.031 They hang them on the ceilings of the church, 0:01:43.031,0:01:46.434 so the entire ceiling is filled with body parts. 0:01:48.090,0:01:51.576 I was very inspired by these more simple milagros 0:01:51.576,0:01:53.418 that are more generalized. 0:01:53.851,0:01:57.419 In a way, that foot becomes anyone's foot. 0:02:01.262,0:02:05.421 I started with very specific pairings that I was interested in, 0:02:05.421,0:02:07.113 and then I took those gestures 0:02:07.113,0:02:09.620 and I made milagros out of them. 0:02:19.242,0:02:21.313 I mean, all the pieces have been sanded 0:02:21.313,0:02:23.175 for days and days and days. 0:02:26.033,0:02:29.945 They feel like they've been weathered 0:02:30.445,0:02:33.388 by something that seems familiar, 0:02:33.388,0:02:35.820 like a piece of sea glass in the ocean. 0:02:36.189,0:02:39.189 The fact that you feel that this thing has a history, 0:02:39.189,0:02:40.913 I think that's important. 0:02:42.429,0:02:45.220 You know, here I am, cutting the body up into parts, 0:02:45.220,0:02:47.942 and not thinking about the importance of the sever. 0:02:48.311,0:02:51.651 And so to acknowledge that sever was, I think, 0:02:51.651,0:02:53.621 crucial to whole installation. 0:02:53.621,0:02:54.796 ['Within' -- Janine Antoni] 0:02:54.796,0:02:57.545 And so, the first thing that you witness 0:02:57.545,0:02:58.545 when you come into the space 0:02:58.545,0:02:59.587 is a sever-- 0:02:59.587,0:03:02.111 and a very dramatic sever-- 0:03:02.111,0:03:05.279 and this ascension into the ceiling. 0:03:10.520,0:03:13.989 Initially, I wanted to hang the roots from the ceiling, 0:03:13.989,0:03:16.114 and hang the milagros from them. 0:03:17.784,0:03:21.855 This trunk is kind of grafted to the building itself, 0:03:21.855,0:03:25.039 and then when the trunk goes through the ceiling, 0:03:25.039,0:03:28.532 it's grafted to a table on the second floor 0:03:28.532,0:03:30.072 with milagros. 0:03:40.762,0:03:42.841 When I was a little girl, 0:03:43.165,0:03:44.441 I had an aunt-- 0:03:44.441,0:03:45.903 her name was Auntie Eileen. 0:03:45.903,0:03:48.797 She came over every Tuesday to have tea-- 0:03:48.797,0:03:49.933 she was English. 0:03:49.933,0:03:52.472 And, I would sit and have tea with her, 0:03:52.472,0:03:56.502 and she would teach me how to drink tea like a lady. 0:03:56.800,0:03:59.395 Part of that was learning to cross my legs. 0:04:00.605,0:04:03.985 I thought it was funny to take the bone from one leg 0:04:03.985,0:04:07.309 and cross it with the skin of the other leg. 0:04:07.969,0:04:11.184 I sunk that bone right into the thigh 0:04:11.595,0:04:14.905 so that they are really fused together. 0:04:15.513,0:04:17.673 So in the piece, there's really no chance 0:04:17.673,0:04:20.474 of uncrossing my legs. 0:04:25.597,0:04:27.257 When you stand in front of the object, 0:04:27.257,0:04:31.103 I want you to imagine how it's been made. 0:04:31.103,0:04:32.673 And the reality is that 0:04:32.673,0:04:35.166 we are in contact with a lot of objects 0:04:35.166,0:04:37.400 and we have no idea how they are made. 0:04:40.000,0:04:42.524 Making any of my work is a form of healing-- 0:04:43.223,0:04:47.967 that, in making, I can somehow locate myself 0:04:47.967,0:04:51.106 in relationship to others 0:04:51.106,0:04:52.832 and my environment. 0:04:53.348,0:04:55.472 If somebody comes along 0:04:55.472,0:04:57.627 and my work resonates for them, 0:04:58.187,0:05:00.596 that's when I feel less alone-- 0:05:00.596,0:05:05.074 that I'm not as strange as I feel. [LAUGHS]