Fading Out and Back Again (above), a 7-part projected video, was included in the exhibition, Cosmix II, at the South Florida Bishop Planetarium in collaboration with the Ringling College of Art and Design. Essentially, it is a more abstracted version of the most recent video I’ve completed Like a Moth to a Flame. They're both large-scale and start with the notion of a dream state, scattered with images of windy/watery bodies, sea creatures, playful figures, entrancing lights and eerie sounds of submerged clicks and shrills. This slowly dissolves into a more visceral state, with slightly masked images of smoky bars and back porches littered with whiskey sours, burning cigarettes, beer bongs, and inebriated figures that range from dancing to daunting, accompanied by an audio including bits of slurred stories and fed-back from house shows. Then a moment of darkness moves into an awakening which, after some reflection on the nightly happenings, rolls right back into the dream state. Ideally, Like a Moth to a Flame would loop for the duration of a show. Also, when installed there is a gap between the two videos, which is not seen web rendered version. The only added audio in the 2-part video installation is a track of me humming which fades in and out, keeping with the flow of the images and my tendency to be over indulgent in romanticism. The humming starts out with “Part of Your World” from Disney's “The Little Mermaid” and “Once Upon a December” from “Anastasia”, then as the imagery darkens, The Eagles hit “Witchy Woman” comes in, and finishes up with Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does it Better”.
The videos are mostly sort a visual poetry, with the same dreamy, fluid treatment as my paintings/sculptures. Plans for future videos include making backdrops and prop-like objects, and going to more on sight locations to film and just taking more complex footage in general.
