Jr. Jr. Are You All Right?

In this endlessly repeating tableau, a pair of Red Cross CPR dummies engage in a life-or-death scenario, while a projection of a lifeguard runs towards a nearby window. The dummies, commonly used in CPR training for lifeguards and first responders, are lifelike with chests that can accept compressions and mouths that can intake breaths into lung-like air bladders. Here the dummies are found alone in a room; one dummy lays on the ground “not breathing” and the other hovers over him, enacting chest compressions in order to save his life. Of course, neither dummy is “alive” in the traditional sense, and in fact in the tableau, the “not breathing” dummy is hooked up to an air compressor on an electronic delay, which enacts a form of breathing into the downed dummy’s chest air bladder.

2002
8 x 5 x 15 ft.
Video projection, CPR dummies, air compressor, bananas, first-aid box

Photo by Erik Peterson.