ALEXANDER HAHN

electronic media artist

Video

TRADING A UV-LIT SCORPION FOR A PEACOCK MOVING IN CIRCLES

Bronx Zoo, New York

Aug 30, 2011 


If the UV-lit scorpion attraction, the original subject of my field trip to the Bronx Zoo, would not have ended since the shuttering of the World of Darkness, as I was told at the gate, I might have overlooked the strange ritual of this peacock and avoided a near brush with security.

For while I was taping, squatting three feet into the lawn area I overheard a lady repeatedly saying "Sir." I knew from experience that she probably meant me, but ignored her and continued recording for just the length I deemed not rude and then asked her to grant me a few more minutes to finish my job. Without any trace of impatience or irateness in her voice she calmly continued, as though speaking to herself that security would remove me from the lawn and then remove me from the Zoo. I zoomed in on the eyes on bis train of feathers, pressed the stop button, thanked her and stepped off the lawn.