Frank Pietronigro’s Documents is a time-based interactive work that was first experienced by an audience at the Diego Rivera Gallery at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1996. The work is interactive insofar as the audience is encouraged to walk on homophobic words made of salt to destroy the text with their footprints as a collective act of recuperation.
My intention is for the audience to confront the dilemma of breaking a taboo by walking on the art. In most museums and galleries one is told not to get too close to the art. In this case I welcome my audience to help me destroy my work as acts of loving kindness. By doing so, their footprints will become devices of recuperation as their steps on the salt deconstruct these negative signifiers. Each step democratically contributes to the ongoing development of the composition. The use value of the work is a ritual of affirmation in places of communal transition.
The work begins with me kneeling on the floor, a gesture that is both erotic and humble. I then use stencils and salt to cover the floor with continuous lines of text comprised of homophobic words found in the English language. These words are tenuously structured into what I consider a “painting support,” in this case the floor. The audience shoes serve as paintbrushes and their walk through the space creates a painting through their unexpected performance collaboration. These words are also structured into our language and reinforce homophobia and the creative contribution of the viewer serve as loving acts of transformation as the viewers, not I, are truly the creators of this transitory work of art.
As a painter, I prepares a canvas, so to speak, as salted text on the floor. However, it is the path of the viewer, whether conscious or unconscious, that serves as the paintbrush.
The words that Pietronigro used in Documents were sourced from the Oxford English Dictionary and the Dictionary of Slang. The litany of words in English is provided below. João Pedro Vale is now expanding Documents to include words in Portuguese.
Documents is a powerful and thought-provoking work that challenges the audience to confront their own homophobia. It is a reminder that language has the power to both harm and heal. By walking on the salted words, the audience is invited to participate in a ritual of affirmation and reclamation.
I continue to perform this action in various public spaces engaging the audience in dialogue about the work during its development. Documents has been used in schools to draw the attention to the negative impacts of name calling and bullying. We see below students from the Park Day School in Berkeley, California using Documents as a tool to look at name calling and its impact by using salt to document the negative words these students have been called themselves. The students brought from their classrooms lists of recuperative and positive words to replace the negative signifiers.
HOMOPHOBIC WORDS
homo, nance, lily, boy snatch, capon, flamer, drag queen, main queen, nelly, nellie, pansy, priss, gay, sod, queer, jasper, poofter, moffie, arse-king, arse, arsebandit, bud sallogh, shitten prick, booty bandit, backdoor man, gentleman of the backdoor, back-gammoner, inspector of manholes, dirt track rider, turd packer, dung pusher, poo jabber, hock, gash, pussy, gentleman pussy, sea pussy, boy pussy, boy snatch, boy cunt, bum boy, boy cunt, poonce, brownie queen, queeny, browning sister, queen, mustard pot, jere, molly, jarjery, mary ann, charlotte ann, miss nancy, nance, pansy, mary, betty, dinah, ethyl, nola, gussie, broken wrist, limp wrist, flit, mince, mason, male oriented, faggot, fagot, faget, fagatt, faggat, faglad, faggoteer, angel, baby, salesman, cake eater, sister, three letter man, four letter man, poof, pouf, poofter, horse’s hoof, horses, cow’s hoof, iron hoof, iron, puff, collar and cuff, cuff, nigh enough, enuff, queer, queir, queyr, quere, brighton pier, ginger beer, ginger, king lear, gear, pork and beans, submarine, cock sucker, head worker, blow boy, flute, fluter, freak, frit, cannibal, gobbler, girl, jocker, piccolo player, pix, peter puffer, larro, mouser, muzzler, dick sucker, dickie licker, skin diver, nibbler, lapper, lick box, homosexual, chicken, chicken delight, chicken hawk, bronco, left handed mintie, mola, out, mandrake, paleface, pogey, bird taker, man’s man, third sexer, eye doctor, punk, jocky, trapeze artist, tusk, wolf, ring tail, rocks, sissy, mason, male oriented, identified, mason, male oriented, Philly Lou Bird
Documents first installed by Frank Pietronigro, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, 1996
