The Divine Comedy
Travelling through the Asperen Fortress with DDV
The Family are 24 knife-wielding machines, built in 1989. They depict the 24 members of the Manson Family, arrested at the Spahn Ranch on October 12th, 1969.
This presentation commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Tata/LaBianca murders in Los Angeles on August 9th and 10th, 1969, which turned the love cult into a terror cult, end ended the era of hippiedom, love and peace.
The machines are built of steel pipes and run on xerox print-machine electric motors. The shafts are connected to the knives' handles which pivot over bolts, transmitting the rotation into a swiveling motion. The entire group is divided over several sub-groups which are plugged into timers, all set to different intervals. Thus some machines are wielding around, and others might stand still, just to start off at any time. The randomness of still and motion makes the whole setup even more dangerous.
A large 'Charlie Painting' on the wall overlooks the installation with an evil grin.The whole setup makes a thumping and grinding noise, the floor literally resonating under your feet. The small cubicles at the top of the machines carry a variety of books: Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry, The Family by Ed Sanders, Child of Satan by Susan Atkins, Blood Family by William Zamora, The Killing of Sharon Tate by Lawrence Schiller, etc.