Tug ©2005

Running Time: 05:24

Tug is a three-channel video installation representing the interplay of tension and harmony within parenthood. Like a modern-day version of an Ancient Greek relief, a woman and man struggle at tug-of-war in a life-sized, diptych projection. Their red rope is divided in half by a tiny space between the projections. An LCD monitor is wall-mounted at this division, and shows a toddler dancing, singing and imploring for mama and dada while shuttling between them.

In Tug, the toddler’s movements and emotions correspond to the rope pulled between the parents: at one minute fun, at the next, forceful. In the moment that each parent, literally, reaches the end of their rope, the toddler’s imploring of that parent rises to an intense pitch. What begins as just a game, teeters in a back and forth sparring, and finally turns to an all-out struggle to hold onto one’s rope end.