First Kiss told the story of a childhood dare and ritual occasion of the loss of innocence. It describes an event from my childhood and the commencement of a journey from childlike naivete to adult misgivings. This anecdotal tale recalls being dared to lick a cow's salt block.

Technically, this installation involved a two-monitor and was approximately fifteen by twenty feet. The narration was projected on a wall in a six-by-eight foot rectangular format. The second monitor, being only one and one half inches, was submerged into a salt block. The salt lick was placed on a bed of hay on the studio floor in front of the large projection making it necessary for the viewer to symbolically reenact my experience of getting down on all fours to take the dare. In that position, the viewer was forced to take in the aroma of the hay and minerals while experiencing the tactile and auditory characteristics of the environment.

The high contrast color images in the salt block fluctuated from bright magenta to lime green. These video clips featured the juxtaposition of adult mouth functions, such as kissing, licking, biting, spitting, eating, and drinking. The salt lick serves as an object of both beauty and repulsion. It presented the bonding element of the narrative as well as a series of contrasting images. It portrays natural loveliness in contrast to nutritional practicality for farm animals. It could be seen as a beautiful salt sculpture, full of necessary minerals that naturešs abrasive tongues have shaped over time. The block is wonderfully rounded with smooth shapes and a texture that has taken on the sensuality of the tonguešs licking motion. In contrast, the salt lick could be viewed as a grotesque block of sodium that gets licked by a filthy animal sitting in a collection of mud and excrement.

HOME