Sheet Movements

           “What had that flower to do with being white,

The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?

What brought the kindred spider to that height,

Then steered the white moth thither in the night?

What but design of darkness to appall?—

If design govern in a thing so small.”

                             -       from “Design” by Robert Frost

I often wonder how my sheets end up so twisted or even on the floor in the morning: is it my doing, or is something nightmarish possessing my body while I sleep? The variety of my shifts in “Sheet Movements” draws attention to the active (potentially highly designed) way in which I recharge my batteries. The dark, bland colors also unify the piece, giving it an eerie nighttime feel. While it’s unsettling to think of my sleeping self as pure chaos, it is equally disturbing to think that an underlying design dictates it all.  

With Me  

      

      “here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(I carry it in my heart)"

                           -       from “[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]” by E.E. Cummings

Nothing substitutes for real-time emotions, kisses, or hugs, but being in a long-distance relationship has turned me into somewhat of an expert at using my words to convey love, whether it be through letter, text, or email. (Hearts are apparently sprouting from my fingertips now!) I chose to use stop-motion animation for this video because the resulting choppy rhythm reminds me of the breaks in communication I’ve experienced while waiting for things to send and/or arrive. The proportion of the phone to myself at the end of the film also represents the power a message can have, and how it can come to define an individual. Although I don’t get to see my love daily anymore, I know his heart is still within mine and mine within his.

Music: "Anyone Else But You" by Michael Cera and Ellen Page

10 and 2

      “Upper-arm, arm-pit, elbow-socket, lower-arm, arm-sinews, arm-bones,

Wrist and wrist-joints, hand, palm, knuckles, thumb, fore-finger, finger-balls, finger-joints, finger-nails,

…

The thin red jellies within you, or within me – the bones, and the marrow in the bones,

The exquisite realization of health…”

                        -       from “I Sing the Body Electric” by Walt Whitman

Ever since my car accident this past April, I have bonded with my vehicle in strange ways. While I’m afraid of it more than ever, I also love it more than ever. I have also become hyper-sensitive to the differences between human flesh and machine. In “10 and 2,” the repetition of my hands around the steering wheel emphasizes how much time I spend in my car by restarting my busy schedule every week; the circular movement creates rhythm similar to that of a ticking of a clock, a concept enforced by the beautiful yet mechanical-sounding audio track. Every time we get into our cars, we risk our lives, a thought which paralyzed me for some time after my accident.

But what is living but risking life anyway?

Music: "Jynweythek Ylow" by Aphex Twin     

Beard Envy 

      “It’s hard to brush your teeth and cry

at the same time:

the flagellation of the bristles

and the determination to be thorough

demand attention.

There’s also something comic

about a tear-streaked face

and foaming mouth;

the grimace in the mirror looks like

a mime’s exaggerated

anguish, as if you

were only practicing grief.”

             -       “At the Mirror” by Bart Galle

Issues of gender have always intrigued me, as they’re something we come implicitly in contact with in our everyday lives - those things never said, just accepted or understood. What are the differences between the ways males and females experience the world? What boundaries exist between the sexes, and why? What makes a man attractive? What makes a woman desirable? How did these standards come to be? I used “Beard Envy” to explore self-image from the feminine sphere while employing an extremely masculine symbol, a beard. The generally symmetrical balance of the scene where I apply my beard belittles the strangeness of the situation, while the emphasis on my mouth throughout the piece is both sexual and repulsive. Acts of eating, hygiene, beauty, and self-loathing riddle this video…just another day in the life.   

Light Play

      "He watches the light grow yellower and yellower.

Shadows deeper and darker

Gold honey rich orange amber

Amber wash ashore

Then a sieve to pass it through.

Then the scarf of evening.”

            -       from Quinn’s Passage by Kazim Ali  

          

      The fleeting beauty of light play is certainly a marvel. When I sit down for breakfast, I like to watch the sunlight come through the curtains and dapple the refrigerator. The variety of light captured in the video gives new meaning to an otherwise static object, while the repetition of the image of the refrigerator in unique orientations and speeds shakes up the serenity of my peaceful morning ritual. The playfulness of the audio track also emphasizes the fun to be found in the smallest details of experience. 


Music: "Anything New" by Bibio

Helping Hand

        “The world is a Braille book

for the sighted. The world accepts

being read. Touch, which is in the fingers, is

the hinge on which we swing, in and out

of sensation. We swim

in irritation.”

                  -       from “Postcards” by Kascha Semonovitch

Touch is incredibly important in helping us understand the world and our place in it. In “Helping Hand,” I rhythmically pick pieces of rice from a dirty pot and throw them into soapy dishwater. The grotesqueness of doing the dishes is consequently emphasized by the sound the rice makes upon hitting the water and the video's voyeuristic “surveillance camera” point of view. All over the world, at this very moment, dishes taunt from oily water, scraps of food scream in garbage disposals, and egg-crusted pans resist the helping hand.