Three Songs on Pain Light and Time - ACE441.4

TIME Blood dripping in a transfusion bag. Sunflowers. Hospital scenes. Rodney’s VO says that it’s odd that the film is happening almost exactly a year after his last hip operation, a time when he felt closest to dying. Rodney talking to Mora Byrd, Art Curator, about showing the installation, Visceral Canker, "properly", and explaining how that should be done. He talks about Sir John Hawkins and his coats of arms. Visceral Canker (1990). Hospital scenes. Rodney’s VO explains that concerns about the nature of his blood had led local authorities to insist that he used something else in previous exhibitions. Hospital scenes. Rodney’s VO saying that he’s been unable to make work as he’d like to for several years past. Brenda Agard, Artist, addressing Rodney, remembering "the buzz" of the 1980s with artists from all over the country meeting and sharing ideals; she thinks the community is now more fragmented. Boyce, Smith, and Agard, each with sunflowers. Rodney saying his life is "constantly fragmented" and he has to work in other ways. He’s very happy with his installation, Othello (1995). VO Rodney walking past men holding photographs of Mike Tyson and O J Simpson, talking about his work dealing more and more with sexuality and black male masculinity. He is perturbed at finding himself constantly being called "a threat" because he’s a black man. Women with the photographs. Othello. Rodney’s VO describes the piece and what influenced it. The Watchtower (1989). Rodney’s VO talking about the empty wheelchair as being an image of absence and loneliness as much as of disability. Sea. Beach. Film of wheelchair. Brighton’s Palace Pier at night. Wheelchair at water’s edge. Rodney’s VO saying he wants to create a maze in which wheelchairs will move around on their own… "journeys to nowhere". Credits.