The Ballad of Technological Dependency

NaN•5m•

The Ballad of Technological Dependency links narratives of fact and fiction, threads of memory and community. The Ballad incorporates answering machine messages and photographs of thirteen friends, based on recollections from the previous year. This work emerged out of an interest in the work of American photographer Nan Goldin and Australian photographer William Yang. Both artists produce work that documents the various communities and subcultures to which they belong. I wanted to produce work along similar lines, but rather than attempting to tell the truth through the photograph, I became increasingly interested in blurring the truth, and inventing half of the story. I made a sequel to The Ballad in 2000 called Repeats. I convinced William Yang to appear in it and he made me take off my clothes.