Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it
Multi channel HD video installation, 2021
This work is a series of fragmentary film scenes depicting domestic and intimate family exchanges. In the story telling I am questioning: what are the behaviours rewarded and punished? How are affect and touch used as tools of initiation? How do behaviours draw lines around a group and punish border crossers? Can these mechanisms be constructed or performed and are they purposeful or innate, loving or exploitative?
I choose to work with those already intimately connected to me – my close friends, myself, my siblings. The pace and outcome of the projects are in lockstep with their willingness and confidence in being in front of the camera and my own readiness behind the camera. The character roles also respond directly to their personhood, their abilities, their interpretation, their personal history, and by their relationship with me. I chose each performer precisely because of a blurred line between their identity and the identity of the “character”.
In editing I look for the character in the footage. I look for the communication of the character in the body of the performer. I want the audience to have a corporeal response to the work. To implicate themselves in the narrative as well. There is a productive feedback loop between the performance, the work itself, the artist, and the audience as a collective unit.
