Time and Time Again, 2008
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Time and Time Again, 2008, digital video
Running time: 11.48 minutes
The single-channel video Time and Time Again was produced during an extended collaborative project with inmates at Northeast Correctional Center (NECC), a close-security men’s prison in Bowling Green, Missouri. The script is written as a long list of common clichés, proverbs, and other familiar sayings about time, arranged to create a through-line as it progresses. Filmed inside the prison, the phrases are recited by a group of 20 actors from NECC and are edited into quick succession. The language is by nature generic and overly familiar, phrases we have heard over and over, but who is speaking them makes all the difference to their meaning.
Installation view, Time and Time Again, video projection, Doing Time, Nothing But Time on video monitor, with digital prints from Propositions, “Here and Now,” Katherine E. Nash Gallery, 2009
Time and Time Again, 2008
Produced, directed, filmed, and edited by Jan Estep
Written by Jan Estep with contributions from Denzel Downing, Altonio Graves, Jimmie McGee, Travis Ray, and Stan Schell
Cast: Raynell Brandon II, Scott Brown, M.X. Campbell, Denzel Downing, Tony Drone, Mathew Fuqua, Altonio Graves, Howard Chris Harris, Peter Keil, James Laney, Charles Roy Mosley, Jeffrey Pollard Sr., Lance Pounders, Travis Ray, Stan Schell, Rodney Sheets, Frederick Starks, Robert Thenhaus, David X. Turner, and James Word
Installation view, Time and Time Again, in “Common Sense,” Weisman Art Museum, 2010
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Doing Time, Nothing But Time, 2008
Rehearsal for Doing Time, Nothing But Time at NECC, June 2008
Time and Time Again originally screened during a multimedia theatrical piece titled Doing Time, Nothing But Time, performed inside Northeast Correctional Center (NECC), July 8, 9, 10, 2008. Doing Time, Nothing But Time is the result of a four-month collaborative creative process that used theatre, writing, and video to explore the theme of “time.” The collaboration brought together four groups: Michael Agnew and Groundswell Community Performance, Minneapolis; Jan Estep and the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; Agnes Wilcox and Prison Performing Arts, St. Louis, Missouri; and the actors and staff of Northeast Correctional Center, Bowling Green, Missouri. The final theatrical script is composed of material from group discussions, recorded interviews, and the original written work of the participants. Only the participants’ actual words were used.
Following the performances, an artist project book was produced including texts from the theatrical and video scripts, a selection of the men’s writings, and drawings produced during the residency, as well as a dvd-r insert documenting the live performances at the prison, post-performance question-and-answer sessions with the actors, and the video Time and Time Again. The book was published in spring 2009 and is available at Printed Matter, New York.
Time and Time Again and Doing Time, Nothing But Time were funded by the Institute for Advanced Study, the Office of the Vice President for Research, and the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota. The project was part of the 2006-2008 University Symposium on Time.
Graphic cartoons by M.X. Campbell
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