Obsessive Becoming

‘Who are these people? I know them, yet I feel that I have never seen them before. They appear and shift and seem like so many wraiths or thinning wisps of smoke in the wind. These are the ones who came before me – the faces after the leavers, the left and those only half arrived. I want to bend to them and offer solace and comfort. I want to say – don’t waste your life, be a little more kind, make room for the next one for she is you. Who can we trust if not ourselves? What does the world offer that is not some pure seed growing steadily from the innocence of our birth? Can you touch me, can I see you, where does this light come from, where does it go?
There is a face before me and one behind, like lovers in a dark wood they circle endlessly, looking for the eyes of the beloved. Everyone a part of the other, not in some fairy land but deep down in the soil of our bones turning to ash and back to bone and stretching out to touch the tip of one life to another. Whose love can breach this wall of tears, whose heart can hurdle over?’ – Daniel Reeves
This surreal, free-form autobiography is concerned with childhood and adult rituals, and the longing for meaning and connection during the often wildly absurd events of early life. Obsessive Becoming returns to Reeves’s early exploration of personal narrative forms, poetry, and his interest in creating a more spontaneous and direct fusion between language and video. Words and images of the expectations and disappointments of coming of age break down the boundaries of both mediums. Reeves draws from a wealth of images created since the 1940’s in his family’s enthusiasm for capturing time, featuring Polaroids and 16mm film. The essence of the work is insight, compassion, and healing. It suggests that we abandon memories that have created emotional barriers, and deal with the past without letting it limit our passage through life. In Reeves’s words, you “stand long enough and put off all that guards your heart.”