Drivers Lounge
2002, video installation
co-produced with Bill Daniel
1 room audio (recorded and edited by Bill Daniel - a mix of C.B. chatter and music)
4 audio channels in telephones (C.B. chatter recorded and edited by Bill Daniel)
3 silent video channels looped (shot by Vanessa Renwick)
1 silent video channel (from the archives of Dennis Nyback)
1 sound video channel looped (from the archives of Dennis Nyback)
1 sound video channel looped (from Animal Charm)
4 slides projected (urinals photographed by Bill Daniel at truck stops)
synopsis:
While the initial inspiration for Drivers Lounge was a nasty truck stop bathroom graffiti* that we kept encountering while on the 2001 Lucky Bum film tour, our shared fascination with trucker culture and our own love of the road moved us to create our own version of the American truck stop, which we began developing while traveling. We are fascinated by the bizarre domesticity, hyper abundance of knick-knacks and, recently, the video saturation of the truck stop environment. The CB handle contained within the insulting graffiti gave us an avenue by which to interact with other drivers on the radio. We installed a CB radio in our tour van and Bill Daniel recorded and edited these subsequent conversations which we then played back over telephones stationed at the Drivers Lounge’s table. We showed Vanessa Renwick’s footage shot at various trucks tops during our tour as well as archival truck-related films from Dennis Nyback and a single channel from Animal Charm. We also projected four slides of photographs of urinals in the bathroom area of Drivers Lounge.
*NORTH CAROLINA CAMEL JOCKEY is a low-down dirty rotten stupid fat queer shit stinkin' pissy-pants orange truck driving, no backing, mildewed shit dick fly swarming flea infested HIV positive deep throatin frilly pink dressy blue jean with the zipper in the back wearing dick suckin' nut huggin butt in the air rollover queen of the cone headed turd burglein' pecker puffin peter eatin pistol grip eared trout mouthed shit-4-brains cock suckin' cum junkey dum-assed pointy-eared card carrying pickle park club member