WITH THANKS TO JENNIFER EKSTRAND AND PATRICK GANTERT
CINEMATOGRAPHY BY EVAN DROLET COOK
A couple alternates singing epic love ballads unaccompanied, while the other remains utterly unmoved.
An open call was held for volunteers to come and recount the plot from the original three Star Wars films, on camera, alone in the studio. Participants were asked to wear black and retell the story to the best of their ability. On twelve monitors, the viewer is confronted with the cacophony of people simultaneously recounting their interpretations.
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12 minutes 31 seconds
Do nothing, that is the second best option is a large scale video projection focusing on the inseparable themes of group hysteria and the cult of the celebrity.
The desire to stay versus the inevitability of change is a sixteen monitor video installation produced in conjunction with the cinematographer Evan Drolet Cook. Sixteen participants were allocated a role from Alfred Hitchcock’s film, The Birds. Each was filmed isolated in their own home, watching the film in silence. When their allocated character had a speaking part, the participant read the line aloud from the subtitles on screen.
The filmed participants have varying roles in terms of the amount of speaking they need to do. Those who are speaking the lines of the main characters are active throughout the duration of the film, others are allocated bit-parts and have only a couple of lines to speak within the almost two hours of film-watching.
In the gallery space, the video footage was played on monitors, ordered chronologically by speaking part. The film is recreated for the audience without any visual cues, special effects or sound effects. Without knowing the narrative or the order of the speaking parts, the viewer must actively attempt to follow a dialogue across sixteen monitors, without being able to anticipate where the next voice may come from.
The longer I sit, the less inclined I am to stand up is a video installation exploring our constant quest for self improvement and the celebrity cult of the chef. Participants are filmed cooking in real-time to the instruction provided by an episode of 30 Minute Meals with Rachael Ray. The process is documented with a hand-held video camera. The audio features the voice of Rachael Ray narrating her endeavours on the TV program, mingling with the cooking sounds generated by the participant.
This work was originally exhibited in 2006 as part of the Third Floor Emerging Artist Series at the Rochester Art Center, Rochester, Minnesota. Kris Douglas, Chief Curator at the Rochester Art Center wrote the essay for the catalogue. In 2007 the work was extended from eight monitors to sixteen to be exhibited as a Special Project at artDC, the inaugral art fair held in the Washington Convention Center in DC.
Five participants were asked to come to a screening of the 1970 film, Five Easy Pieces. Later that day, each individual was asked to recount, on camera in an empty studio, as much of the film as they could remember. Each participant sat in one of five places on a sofa to recount the experience.
The footage from each participant is played back on a monitor placed on a table directly in front of the position on the sofa in which the participant was filmed. All the footage is played back simultaneously, and each dialogue is looped. The cacophony of noise means that the viewer must sit on the sofa, directly in front of each monitor to discern what each individual is saying.
Couples were filmed individually attempting to follow along to a previously-unseen instructional dance video, Urban Beat III. The resulting footage is played back without sound, with the image of one member of the couple mirrored. As the footage is synchronised and projected onto opposite walls, it appears that one person is always leading, whilst the other attempts to follow.
My wife is so proud of me… is a project initiated in the summer of 2002. tectonic industries measured the grounds of the house in Wisconsin in which they were living and produced an aerial plan depicting the placement of the house, trees, pathways etc. A grid system was drawn up, dividing the property into 130 squares, each measuring 10 x 10 feet. From September 4th to October 14th, 2002, each square was systematically searched using a metal detector. When a metal item was located, a numbered flag was placed into the ground, and a photograph taken using a Polaroid camera. The item was then dug up and sealed into a plastic bag, with the date, time and position of the find recorded.In total, 519 items were found including a multitude of screws, nails, pieces of aluminium foil and bottle tops.
On the evening of February 5th, 2005, various members of the public positioned on Medicine Lake, Minnesota, USA independently reported an unusual sighting. It would seem that some sort of UFO landed on the frozen lake, with two beings emerging from the module to survey the area. Based on eyewitness reports and testimonies, in conjunction with some out of focus video footage, tectonic industries created a reconstruction of this possible event.
And then I woke up and it was all a dream is a site-specific installation consisting of a large-scale, double video projection exploring the epic themes of love, romance, jealousy, despair, drama and tragedy. Video footage of a walking barking battery-operated dog is played opposite footage of a walking meowing battery-operated cat. The audio and visual footage plays in 1/5th real time in a cavernous warehouse space.
White text on a black background scrolls ceaselessly upwards on a television or video projector. Seemingly random questions are posed with a choice of six answers to choose from, labelled A-F. The questions are not numbered, but there are 250 of them in total. The questions themselves range from reasonably straight-forward (Which of the following authors do you prefer?) to somewhat non-sensical (What is your favourite dental hygiene tool?). They directly refer to the questionnaires found in books and magazines which attempt to diagnose and resolve personality issues, relationship problems, etc.
The viewer is invited to participate in the exhibition by marking an individual score card with the letter-answer to each question. Wall text informs the viewer that they may answer as many or as few questions as they wish, but more accurate results will result from answering a greater number of questions. The score card allows them to check a letter category, A-F, as each question scrolls.
By totalling the number of each letter-answers checked, the viewer will be able to receive a somewhat personalised response and diagnosis, according to response type. Around the installation space, areas are labelled A-F with large vinyl signage. Viewers are instructed to go to the response station which corresponds to the letter-answer they chose the most frequently. At each response station, there is a brochure-holder full of printed cards, which may hold the solution to all of the viewers problems and issues. The viewer is encouraged to take a card and follow the directions carefully. If the directions are followed, the viewer is offered a means to rid themselves of all their troubles.
I never said I didn’t like you is a mixed-media installation commissioned by the Jerome Foundation as part of the Art Inside/ Outside Space Program at Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis. 11 life-size, hand-sewn bears dressed in camouflage fleece outfits sit inside a large tent pitched in the gallery space. They are watching television, specifically the local PBS broadcast. Monitors in the gallery space detail the TV schedule for the duration of the show. Brown astroturf covers the floor. The gallery space is painted in two shades of green to match the tent. A lone bear dressed in two-tone green sits behind the tent, camouflaged to both the tent and the walls.
