Todd McMillan I love you I want you I need you

The words presented in this performance-based video are taken from the title of an early Elvis song. In keeping with McMillan's interest in endurance, melancholy and the dichotomy of speed alongside slowness, this work comprises an hour-long performance sped up by splicing to one minute. The video shows the artist mouthing the words "I love you. I want you. I need you".

Instead of simply drawing out and extending these short statements to his desired duration, McMillan's method was far more labour intensive. He utters the words literally over the course an hour, so the inevitable breathlessness and fatigue are painfully evident. The one minute effect is a strange and stifled version of 'real time', whose sound and appearance seem neurotic, monotone and twitchy. We are led to question what becomes of real emotion, of loving, wanting and needing, when their delivery is so explicitly arduous? Although the sentiment of these words seems to have been eroded, both through over-use and McMillan's stark and faltering delivery, perhaps his physical discomfort reinvests them with the genuine earnestness and meaning they often lack.

Information for students - issues / themes / art practice

Have you ever told someone that you love them? Perhaps it was your mother or your father or perhaps it was a boyfriend or a girlfriend? When we tell someone we love them it's a powerful experience. We are suddenly very vulnerable. What if the person doesn't love us back? Once the words are spoken they can never be taken back and they can't be erased or deleted. Songs have been written about this short but incredibly powerful moment ever since humans first made music. It's likely that the first song ever sung was a love song.

Todd McMillan has made an artwork about this experience. In his artwork I love you I want you I need you Todd has looked closely at this short, potentially devastating, moment and has confronted it directly in a video artwork. In the video we see a young man (the artist) slowly saying "I love you, I want you, I need you". His movements are jerky and disturbing and the sound of his voice is distorted. The artist looks exhausted and almost in pain as he slowly and deliberately says his lines. When he has finally finished, he sits panting with exhaustion. When the video finishes we are left feeling disturbed and confused rather than uplifted or inspired by his message.

Todd McMillan's statement describes how his grueling performance has been sped up by splicing each statement into a total length of one minute. The effect is that we see a person painfully expressing these powerful words. The words presented in this performance-based video are taken from the title of an early Elvis song. This raises certain questions about the artwork. Is Todd McMillan referring to the tremendous popularity of Elvis' love songs? Is he referring to the obsessive nature of love? It is well known that despite Elvis' huge success he became depressed, paranoid and lonely shortly before his tragic, unnatural death. Elvis had a habit of shooting television sets with a gun if the program upset him. Is Todd McMillan commenting on video art itself?

According to Todd McMillan, love requires endurance, dedication and obsession and so does the making of art.

Critical reviews / Quotes

"We are led to question what becomes of real emotion, of loving, wanting and needing, when their delivery is so explicitly arduous? Although the sentiment of these words seems to have been eroded, both through over-use and McMillan's stark and faltering delivery, perhaps his physical discomfort reinvests them with the genuine earnestness and meaning they often lack. "
Todd McMillan, explanatory text, 2007