Tutorial#6: Its our ability to create stylish meals that separates us from the animals (Bear Grylls).

08:30 min video (HD downscaled from 4K) 2015

Dandelion 2015. Zip ties, floating oak shelf.

The work refers to a type of tutorials on YouTube, instructional videos about survival.

These survivalists are mostly men and they focus a lot on how to be self-sufficient which involves learning old techniques and craftsmanship.  They share their knowledge, with high attention to detail and a certain fetishism to objects and materials. They all share a deep anxiety and take actions to handle this.

I was interested in the gender roles assigned to textile craft and the purpose involved in these activates (craft clubs/ craft as therapy). My project is a fictional account :

Three men meet in an institutional setting. They have a conversation made up by fragments I have collected from instructional tutorial videos about survival. Most of these sentences are actual quotations. Many of these phrases end up as existential questions.

During the meeting, they all make a flower out of gaffer tape, zip-ties and para-cord. These are all synthetic materials that are highly regarded for function and flexibility (in Survivalist and Prepper categorization).

A flower is useless in a survival situation. I wish to question art making as an activity. What is useful, what is human?