Interactive Installation by Christa Erickson
The REplay Series explores gender, sexuality, and memory through psychological loops shot on Super8 film and transferred to video, suggesting home movies or a flickery memory. Objects, rhymes, games, technologies, stories and even taunts from childhood reverberate both personally and culturally. Here, a woman tries to remember and forget by enacting and reframing old gestures. Video and sound loops on LCD screens are embedded into objects and projected, some repeating endlessly while others controlled by the presence of the viewer or the whims of the live stock market.
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Playback of footage of climbing a giant ladder to an idealized home is literally controlled by the volatile up and down fortunes of the stock market and the larger economic climate it reflects; yet the goal is perpetually out of reach.
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In front of a large projection is a seat resembling a piano bench with the word ‘Replay” stitched into it. The image begins to move when someone sits down, frozen in time until activated by viewers - like a memory long forgotten until triggered by something in the present. An ultrasonic sensor registers viewer presence to activate the imagery and freeze the image when viewers leave the piano bench. Audio (on wired or wireless headphones) acts as a counterpoint to these film echoes of the past, twisting them and layering their meaning. Childhood rhymes are made queer. Personal and fictional stories are told in an attempt to reconcile present and past. |
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Another element is an open hatbox. As a metaphor for unpleasant memories or repression in general, it plays a video loop of a mouth that continually tries to take in the salt it is fed, but eventually has to spit it all back up.
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Two boxes containing monitors hang on hooks that are weighted on either side of a pulley. These video loops focus on gestures of remembering and forgetting, trying to put them in balance. The front surface is chalkboard with the phrases "i will remember to remember" and "remove, repair, release" written on them.
Femme examines the inability to 'fit' the ideal of femininity, resulting in femme rather than feminine. Stiletto high heel shoes are filled with dissection pins. A tiny makeup compact reflects a video loop of endlessly putting on and wiping off various shades of lipstick unable to find one that works.
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TECHNICAL:
- Eternal Climb : computer, lcd monitor, java stock scraper, lingo video controller, oak ladder, velvet pillow with embroidery
- Rewind Projection: dvd controller, pioneer dvd player, ultrasonic sensor, headphones (wireless), velvet piano bench with embroidery
- Salteater: lcd monitor, dvd player, hatbox, handmirror, table salt
- Remember/Forget: portable dvd players, rope, pulley
- Femme: portable DVD player, wood, makeup compact, stilettos, dissection pins, zipper
CREDITS (2002-2004):
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Christa Erickson |
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Michelle Wacker |
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Michelle Wacker |
Funded in part by the Islip Art Museum and by a SUNY UUP Individual Development Grant.