Hot Hands
How did you get into debt?
Primarily from loans taken out to pay for graduate school for the members of our performance collective. Also, from credit card debt accumulated from surviving in New York City while attending grad school, and only being able to work part-time or freelance.
How does your economic reality effect your art?
Debt has limited the scope of our work in many ways. Since this is a mostly self-financed project, everything from costumes to musical equipment has to be carefully budgeted. Without our debts looming overhead, I feel strongly that our creative output would increase. Economic realities also effects the amount of performances we can do. The ability to afford to perform has been an unfortunate factor in our decisions to participate in projects.
Would your work look different if you weren't in debt?:
Debt is a horrible societal calamity that needs to be remedied. However in the work we do, which primarily focuses on issues of social justice, communities, and cultural identity; being in-debt does help in understanding issues that affect such a huge demographic of our society. It may be that our artwork would be more distanced from the themes we address if we were totally free from debt. Our artwork would certainly be more optimistic without debt looming over our heads...
https://hothandscollective.tumblr.com
Prism, Mirror, Lens. Performed by Hot Hands on November 19, 2016 at Five Myles Gallery, Brooklyn. Conceived and performed by Kiowa Hammons and Daonne Huff. Sculptures by Ethan Green. Performance filmed by Martin Loper
https://hothandscollective.tumblr.com