WITH THANKS TO FRANCESCA CAVILIA, LAUREN DRASLER, SARA KANTOR, ELIZABETH CHARLOTTE KERSTEIN
CINEMATOGRAPHY BY KEVIN PONTUTI

It is universally acknowledged that a happy life is a good life, and yet, as a civilization we are becoming increasingly depressed, stressed and removed from life’s simple pleasures. In this piece, four women are filmed in their own home, reading from different books, each advising the best way to pursue happiness. The viewer enters the gallery space where the women are projected onto each of the four walls. As the visual language is reminiscent of instructional movies, infomercials and the lost art of storytelling, the viewer waits for a narrative to be gifted beyond that which they are immediately given. Headphones on the wall allow the viewer to listen to one track at a time, further isolating the women from each other. The women are singing from their texts in an operatic fashion. As we listen to how we should best become happy, the gulf between intention and reality becomes wider and more insurmountable.

Exhibited as part of the SPARK festival, this project was completed with the support of a Northern Lights Art(ists) on the Verge 2 Fellowship.

2008
VIDEO PROJECTION
DIMENSIONS VARIABLE
55 MINUTES DURATION

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.

As we constantly look for the ultimate fulfillment in everything we do outside our immediate relationship, we inevitably become more obsessively self-centered. We focus our attention more on what we communicate to others, than what is communicated to us. We neglect our most fundamental need for long lasting, meaningful relationships. Instead we pour our energy into the creation of an absurdly fictitious and artificial reality, to replace the actuality of what we have.

12 MONITOR VIDEO INSTALLATION
DIMENSIONS VARIABLE
1 HOUR 28 MINUTES DURATION

CINEMATOGRAPHY BY EVAN DROLET COOK

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.

CINEMATOGRAPHY BY EVAN DROLET COOK
INSTALLATION IMAGES BY RIK SFERRA

Sixteen participants were allocated a role from Alfred Hitchcock’s film, The Birds. Each participant 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.

In the gallery, the sixteen monitors started simultaneously and played for 1 hour and 58 minutes before looping back to the beginning. Viewers attempt to follow the dialogue as it is fragmented across the physical space of the gallery.

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.

Cinematography by Evan Drolet Cook

Images © Rik Sferra for Franklin Art Works

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 desire to stay versus the inevitability of change was created for a solo exhibition at Franklin Art Works, Minneapolis, in February 2008. A catalogue is currently in production with an essay by Ben Heywood, Executive Director of The Soap Factory.

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.

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.

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.