A Thing of Great Power and Size Has Gone Missing
(2017, installation, group performance, related programming) At the Comfort Station Chicago during October 2017, Lucky Pierre created A Thing of Great Power and Size has Gone Missing (October 7, 2001 - Present). The project centered on an extensive timeline covering the entire interior of the Comfort station - citing historical, political, and social events occurring during the U.S. led war on terror, including the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. The focus was human bodies - their destruction and exploitation during these conflicts
The work juxtaposed the disappearance of those bodies with the most popular films of the war years - each with all the human bodies removed. By using the highest-grossing domestic films from the war years, we attempted to explore the interconnectedness of American values, cultural production, national/military policy, as well as official and alternative methods of historicizing.
As part of the programming for our month at the Comfort Station, we organized “16 Lectures Concerning 16 War Years.” 16 presenters (performers, artists, dancers, educators, scholars) presented on each of the 16 years.
Presenters: Lora Lode, Bettina Johnson, Heather Lindahl, Benji Pearson, Joshua Wade Smith, Bill Talsma, Arnold Kemp, Diana Slickman, Mary Zerkel, Sarah Ross, Ania Greiner & Greg Gilliam, Dolores Wilber, Ryan Griffis, Ravi Bhatt, David Kodeski, Desiree Nadezhda Coral Guerra.
Closing Event: 38-hour Screening
Friday, October 27, 8:00 AM to Saturday, October 28, 10:00 PM
For 38 hours Lucky Pierre will screened the highest grossing films for each of the war years. The films were re-edited to remove human bodies while maintaining the original runtimes - condensing and measuring 16 years of war into 2,280 minutes of now altered entertainment product.
The re-edited films screened were:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), Spider-Man (2002) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) Shrek 2 (2004) Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) Spider-Man 3 (2007) The Dark Knight (2008) Avatar (2009) Toy Story 3 (2010) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (2011) Marvel's The Avengers (2012) The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) American Sniper (2014) Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015) Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
