Paul Du Mond

I start by setting up a ladder. Climbing to the second highest rung, I read a note intended for a young woman in another class that I'm interested in meeting. After reading the note I inform the audience that she was not in class. I then step down from the ladder and grab a VCR. Climbing onto the first rung of the ladder I throw the VCR onto the concrete. I then pick up the VCR and climb onto the second rung, once again throwing the VCR onto the concrete. I repeat this for every rung of the ladder until I reach the very top rung and toss the VCR once more before my exit into the van.

The idea for this performance came from the desire to simply break something. I felt it would be fun to completely destroy some piece of equipment (It was too). The note-reading was completely spontaneous, because it originally had nothing to do with the performance or my initial idea. However, the note added the necessary emotion to keep the performance interesting and meaningful. The meaning of the performance, as I felt it, was a comment on failure, anger and rejection. I had failed to meet the young lady I wanted to meet, and expressed my anger by throwing a rejected and obsolete VCR to the ground repeatedly.

The note: Hello. My name is Paul Du Mond. Forgive me for using the direct approach but I saw no other opportunity to say this since we never really come in contact with each other. I'm Paul and I'd like to get to know you. You're very pretty and I'd like to take you to lunch or dinner sometime. My phone number is (915)-203-6244. Please call me if you'd like to get to know me too. Thank you. P.S.: I would have said all of this to you but you're in class and I didn't want to be too intrusive.