A bit more on Miss Claustrophobia...

OK, I'm going to try to pick up where I left off in my convoluted attempt at an introductory synopsis of the Miss Chloe Claustrophobia project.

In case you are having a hard time deciphering what I'm saying through my banshee-shreaks in the recording posted in my last entry, I'll begin by posting the lyrics this time around. Yes, they're vague. Yes, they're minimal. Yes, they're nonspecific. Yes, that's part of the point.

She came to me late one night, and she said
'Stay out of the snake pit.'
I don't know what she meant when she said,
'Stay out of the snake pit.'
Miss Claustrophobia's seen all of the men
Fall into the snake pit.
I don't know what she meant when she said,
'Stay out of the snake pit.'

When she appears, and I'm just
Nervous, and shaking,
It seems that she's naked and thinks
I'm looking for advice
But when your illusions have crumbled,
She'll leave you where you are,
In your bed, to sweat.

(I should also take this time, before I move on from the musical element of the project, to acknowledge my collaborators in this phase. "The Plea of Miss Claustrophobia was recorded by Wes Hopeless and myself at The Hopeless Estate in El Mirage, Arizona. Wes Hopeless played drums, spoons, various electronic noisemakers, synth, and back-ground screaching on the track, and I contributed the lead vocals, guitar, bass, synth, and tambourine [the bruises and gouges on my right thigh have still yet to completely go away]. In the video, Lady Hysteric Noir is playing bass, and videography was accomplished, with rather extreme constraints of space, by a gentleman named Buddy. The instrumental elements of the song were composed by myself, Wes Hopeless, and Hysteric Noir. As always, I am extremely indebted to and grateful for my collaborators.)

With the ideas of the dream and the conceptual attempt of the song still fresh in my mind and yet to be completely expressed, I began collecting raw materials for a visual facet of the project to further express the concept in mind. The primary find, in this regard, proved to be a mannequin that Chris Castle and I (yes, the notorious nihilist sculptor and performance artist Chris Castle) jokingly began referring to as "Chloe" (no, I don't remember why that name seemed appropriate. Ask Mr. Castle, he might...)

The first phase of artistic creation into which Chloe (it soon became obvious that the themes that Chloe was procured with the intention of expressing rendered her and "Miss Claustrophobia" the same symbolic individual, thus "Miss Chloe Claustrophobia") factored was a set of photographs, using her in her pre-modified form as the physical subject.

This is an image from that set of photographs, titled "Stubborn and Swank."


In my next entry, I will post other images from the set of my photography featuring Chloe, as well as discuss, from a critical perspective, how these photographs factor into the overal project.