1 00:00:07,388 --> 00:00:12,345 [Janine Antoni: Milagros] 2 00:00:25,691 --> 00:00:28,115 You know, a lot of people don't know 3 00:00:28,804 --> 00:00:31,146 what the coccyx looks like, 4 00:00:31,146 --> 00:00:34,502 but really, it's the site of our severed tail. 5 00:00:37,779 --> 00:00:42,977 I love the cup of the sacrum and the cup of the hand, 6 00:00:42,977 --> 00:00:45,218 as if they're about to shake hands. 7 00:00:46,913 --> 00:00:50,251 So this is a very unusual--and impossible-- 8 00:00:50,251 --> 00:00:53,650 coming together of two body parts. 9 00:00:55,018 --> 00:00:58,789 The whole idea around this work was really about grafting. 10 00:01:00,882 --> 00:01:03,189 When you graft one plant to another, 11 00:01:03,189 --> 00:01:05,144 then they fuse together. 12 00:01:09,743 --> 00:01:12,144 For years, I've been fascinated with 13 00:01:12,144 --> 00:01:13,915 these things called 'milagros'. 14 00:01:14,175 --> 00:01:16,746 They're found in Portugal, 15 00:01:16,746 --> 00:01:19,113 in Spain, in Mexico, 16 00:01:19,113 --> 00:01:20,544 and in Brazil. 17 00:01:20,722 --> 00:01:22,912 The ones that people are most familiar with are 18 00:01:22,912 --> 00:01:25,747 these small medallions that are shaped like 19 00:01:25,747 --> 00:01:27,484 an arm, or a leg, 20 00:01:27,484 --> 00:01:28,913 or a heart. 21 00:01:28,913 --> 00:01:32,443 But they also have them in three dimensions. 22 00:01:33,519 --> 00:01:34,863 The way they're used is that 23 00:01:34,863 --> 00:01:36,420 if you have an ailment-- 24 00:01:36,420 --> 00:01:37,682 if you have a problem with your foot-- 25 00:01:37,682 --> 00:01:39,544 you would go and buy one of these, 26 00:01:39,544 --> 00:01:41,150 and you'd take it to the church. 27 00:01:41,150 --> 00:01:43,031 They hang them on the ceilings of the church, 28 00:01:43,031 --> 00:01:46,434 so the entire ceiling is filled with body parts. 29 00:01:48,090 --> 00:01:51,576 I was very inspired by these more simple milagros 30 00:01:51,576 --> 00:01:53,418 that are more generalized. 31 00:01:53,851 --> 00:01:57,419 In a way, that foot becomes anyone's foot. 32 00:02:01,262 --> 00:02:05,421 I started with very specific pairings that I was interested in, 33 00:02:05,421 --> 00:02:07,113 and then I took those gestures 34 00:02:07,113 --> 00:02:09,620 and I made milagros out of them. 35 00:02:19,242 --> 00:02:21,313 I mean, all the pieces have been sanded 36 00:02:21,313 --> 00:02:23,175 for days and days and days. 37 00:02:26,033 --> 00:02:29,945 They feel like they've been weathered 38 00:02:30,445 --> 00:02:33,388 by something that seems familiar, 39 00:02:33,388 --> 00:02:35,820 like a piece of sea glass in the ocean. 40 00:02:36,189 --> 00:02:39,189 The fact that you feel that this thing has a history, 41 00:02:39,189 --> 00:02:40,913 I think that's important. 42 00:02:42,429 --> 00:02:45,220 You know, here I am, cutting the body up into parts, 43 00:02:45,220 --> 00:02:47,942 and not thinking about the importance of the sever. 44 00:02:48,311 --> 00:02:51,651 And so to acknowledge that sever was, I think, 45 00:02:51,651 --> 00:02:53,621 crucial to whole installation. 46 00:02:53,621 --> 00:02:54,796 ['Within' -- Janine Antoni] 47 00:02:54,796 --> 00:02:57,545 And so, the first thing that you witness 48 00:02:57,545 --> 00:02:58,545 when you come into the space 49 00:02:58,545 --> 00:02:59,587 is a sever-- 50 00:02:59,587 --> 00:03:02,111 and a very dramatic sever-- 51 00:03:02,111 --> 00:03:05,279 and this ascension into the ceiling. 52 00:03:10,520 --> 00:03:13,989 Initially, I wanted to hang the roots from the ceiling, 53 00:03:13,989 --> 00:03:16,114 and hang the milagros from them. 54 00:03:17,784 --> 00:03:21,855 This trunk is kind of grafted to the building itself, 55 00:03:21,855 --> 00:03:25,039 and then when the trunk goes through the ceiling, 56 00:03:25,039 --> 00:03:28,532 it's grafted to a table on the second floor 57 00:03:28,532 --> 00:03:30,072 with milagros. 58 00:03:40,762 --> 00:03:42,841 When I was a little girl, 59 00:03:43,165 --> 00:03:44,441 I had an aunt-- 60 00:03:44,441 --> 00:03:45,903 her name was Auntie Eileen. 61 00:03:45,903 --> 00:03:48,797 She came over every Tuesday to have tea-- 62 00:03:48,797 --> 00:03:49,933 she was English. 63 00:03:49,933 --> 00:03:52,472 And, I would sit and have tea with her, 64 00:03:52,472 --> 00:03:56,502 and she would teach me how to drink tea like a lady. 65 00:03:56,800 --> 00:03:59,395 Part of that was learning to cross my legs. 66 00:04:00,605 --> 00:04:03,985 I thought it was funny to take the bone from one leg 67 00:04:03,985 --> 00:04:07,309 and cross it with the skin of the other leg. 68 00:04:07,969 --> 00:04:11,184 I sunk that bone right into the thigh 69 00:04:11,595 --> 00:04:14,905 so that they are really fused together. 70 00:04:15,513 --> 00:04:17,673 So in the piece, there's really no chance 71 00:04:17,673 --> 00:04:20,474 of uncrossing my legs. 72 00:04:25,597 --> 00:04:27,257 When you stand in front of the object, 73 00:04:27,257 --> 00:04:31,103 I want you to imagine how it's been made. 74 00:04:31,103 --> 00:04:32,673 And the reality is that 75 00:04:32,673 --> 00:04:35,166 we are in contact with a lot of objects 76 00:04:35,166 --> 00:04:37,400 and we have no idea how they are made. 77 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:42,524 Making any of my work is a form of healing-- 78 00:04:43,223 --> 00:04:47,967 that, in making, I can somehow locate myself 79 00:04:47,967 --> 00:04:51,106 in relationship to others 80 00:04:51,106 --> 00:04:52,832 and my environment. 81 00:04:53,348 --> 00:04:55,472 If somebody comes along 82 00:04:55,472 --> 00:04:57,627 and my work resonates for them, 83 00:04:58,187 --> 00:05:00,596 that's when I feel less alone-- 84 00:05:00,596 --> 00:05:05,074 that I'm not as strange as I feel. [LAUGHS]