In 'Smashing' (2004), artist Jimmie Durham dressed in a suit, sits behind a desk like a bureaucrat performing an unusual duty—smashing objects. One by one, individuals enter, hand him an item, and watch as he crushes it with a prehistoric stone stool.
His actions are violent yet detached, carried out with a mechanical efficiency. After each destruction, he methodically stamps and signs a receipt, handing it back before the person exits. This cycle repeats over 92 minutes.
Gradually, a multi-colored and protean pile of waste forms on the ground. The artist reveals by this repetitive gesture the brutality of the administration and the forms of power in the Western societies. This production through destruction also leads to a reflection on the status of sculpture and the artist.
The video performance was created during Durham’s teaching residency at Fondazione Antonio Ratti in Como, Italy.
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