Three little stop valves

Two days ago I was riding on the bike with the mindset of solving a dripping issue for my piece and went to several hardware stores to find a solution. I was at Ace’s Hardware (Uptown) and as I was sitting on the floor looking for stop valves, I heard thunders roar outside. Suddenly it dawned on me the piece I was making had an open container on top and that if it filled up, (maybe) it wouldn’t be able to withstand the whole weight of the water. I stormed out of the store and rode the bike furiously through the rain towards my place in Mid-City.

When I got there, I was relieved. It seemed to have rained on it but lightly, almost miraculously and I said thank you to whatever divine intervention I was bestowed upon. I was already wet and still needed to get the valve thing working (after several failed attempts of dripping regulation) so I just switched to my rubber boots and went out to Mike’s Hardware Store in Gentilly. By the time I got there, I was drenched and almost cascaded myself into the store. Of course, they improvised a solution which solved my problem and I waited outside for the rain to stop. Time went by and it seemed I was getting colder and after a wile the wait seemed absurd (specially when you are already that wet) so I hopped in the bike and tried to get back home.

When I say I tried is probably a modest approximation of what happened. Huge puddles of water (or what seemed as small lakes to the bike) got in the way of my leg strength. I tried to take refuge underneath a bridge but cars went through these already filled concave oceans and I got washed away at some points. In all my projects there is always a point like this. I’m a semi-long distance jogger so I know that you reach a specific point in which everything hurts and you’re wondering why are you doing this to yourself. In the work that I do, there is always a brief situation assessment of getting hurt versus achieving a goal. If you get hurt then you are boycotting yourself and the game is over. If you achieve the goal you have to know the price of acquiring such a demand upon yourself.

I decided to keep riding with full assertiveness that I was, at that point, safe from harm and eased my pace to less dangerous zones to ride by. Needless to say I had to squish myself out before I came inside my house. I poured the contents of the bag out to let everything dry out.

After I took a long, warm bath I had lunch (Mexican time) and looked at the little wet, brown paper bag on the floor that held three improvised stop valves from Mike’s Hardware Store. They seemed unaware of their transcendent importance. This moment was when I really understood how success is sort of a social construction. Achievement is a word I like better. My work deals with impossibility, always. But through personal achievements I’m able to feel a powerful sense of possibility. To my mother is probably establishing a good negotiation in her line of work, to my sister-in-law lessening someone’s injury or atrophy through physical therapy, to my grandmother dealing with her ails and frailties of her age and on and on to most of the people I care and love.

Everyone has these three little valves that allow them to make these assessments towards what they're passionate about. Mine went to an improvisation piece that was incredibly demanding through its ephemeral existence of three hours, it helped me to further explore improvisation not only of the solutions I create but for the people that improvised along with me. All the staff at Home Depot and Mike’s Hardware Store, Casey Valadie for the drum kit, my landlord, my friends whom sat down with me and advised on the construction and the stability of things, of sisters that helped me carry by bits and pieces parts of my installation and to the usual emotional support I get from family and friends here or abroad when I get frustrated in some part of the chaotic process of making something I’m clueless about to finally work.