Habit Towards Obedience

The Clocktower Gallery presents the performance Habit Towards Obedience by Jesse Hlebo. In his performance, Hlebo takes the United States' prison system as its starting point. He is accompanied by John Colpitts (Kid Millions, of Onedia, Man Forever, Boredoms) on drums, Caroline Busta and Fay Victor.

Habit Towards Obedience consists of three movements based on the U.S. prison system.

The first movement is an extraction of rhythms from prison spirituals and gospel songs played by Kid Millions on a single snare.
The second movement consists of a text created by Caroline Busta and Jesse Hlebo. The text is an amalgamation of writings and quotes related to the U.S. prison system, re-structured into a liturgical format.
The attendee's are led in the reading of the text by Jesse Hlebo.
The third and final movement is Billy Taylor's song "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free" sung and repeated three time's by Fay Victor. Each subsequent repetion decreases in tempo.
Upon entering the Clocktower Gallery's building at 108 Leonard St, itself a center of criminal court's, attendees are required to pass through a security check point. Proceeding to the twelfth floor, and then onto the thirteenth via a fire exit stairwell, attendees are subjected to further check points instituted by Hlebo.
In order to enter the gallery in which the piece occurres, attendees are required to take off their shoes and place their cell phone's inside, refrain from photography, and are not allowed to sit inside of the space during the duration of the piece.
Six orange prison jumpsuits, aquired from Bob Barker Company, Inc., are hung in front of the windows. Hlebo masqueraded as a correctional facility in order to aquire the jumpsuits.

PDF of the second movement can be downloaded here

Habit Towards Obedience from Jesse Hlebo on Vimeo. Video filmed and edited by Grant Willing.