In “Nails on a Blackboard,” the hand of an unseen performer repeatedly writes and then erases the word “NAILS” on a blackboard for 55 minutes, the length of a class in my high school. Is this educational, or is it punishment? “Nails on a Blackboard” explores these dualities, asking the viewer to question what, if anything, will be gained at the risk of possible discomfort by engaging with the work. Finally, the work plays with a fundamental principle of physics: that matter (information) cannot be created or destroyed. This becomes clearer as the pristine board takes on more abstract patterns of the erased chalk, until eventually remnants of the word NAILS remain imbued into its surface.
