The Yellow Rope Project: colonizing the rocks of Terra Nova, the brainchild of Rachel Monosov and Yapci Ramos
“We should have brought Terrence.”
“Terrence can’t be in this film. He’s not a colonizer,” Rachel answers to my sudden guilt of not including Terrence in our journey across the water. “He’s not the problem, White Earthlings are.”
I love how Rachel thinks so clearly, so easily about her work. Her vision is among the most potent I’ve come across.
As she dons the yellow coveralls we found in the Newfie shed of our beloved cabin and wraps a large rock in yellow rope to colonize it, she becomes the possessor of that rock.
I rowed us across the ocean inlet to get there, playing my role of assistant in her performance while Justin played the harmonica and encouraged me as I struggled to maneuver the rowboat across the waves. Rachel and Yapci passed the camera from one to another while Matthew filmed the journey from the shore. He was worried we wouldn’t be able to row on our own, but like most things CTGians put their minds to, we got across just fine… even if I twirled the boat in circles a few times before getting the hang of the yellow oars.”
Excerpt from Catinca Tabacaru Journal
Yellow Rope from Rachel on Vimeo.
Yellow Rope nr. 1, 2016, archival inkjet print (framed)
Yellow Rope documentation of performance, 2016, archival pigment print, 12×7 in
Yellow Rope Performance in Newfoundland, Canada, 2016