A POTENTIALITY (2020, digital, 16mm film, 16 minutes)
Winner of the Alice Guy Prize Special Mention at FID Marseille 2020. Notes from the Jury: A film which meticulously reflects upon the materiality of time following specific histories. While focusing on details, the images prevent us from accessing the whole. This gesture reflects the subject where voice has been violently stripped from the people, left silenced. The Special Mention for Prix Alice Guy goes to “A POTENTIALITY” by Dana Berman Duff.
A POTENTIALITY is a continuation of my interest in using film to shoot printed material, as in the Catalogue series. I'm especially interested in the equivalence of the film grain to the halftone print dot at the base level of the construction of reproduced image and language.
This piece is built on a graphic project by Susan Silton in which she reprinted five pages of the New York Times from the 1930s. Her project has a disturbing resemblance to present day newspaper reports.
Opera "The Emperor of Atlantis" composed in 1944 by Viktor Ulmann, libretto by Peter Kien.
2-MINUTE TRAILER
WORK SAMPLES 2
Video: Excerpt from The Gringas (2013, 59:45 minutes, Mexico/USA, HD digital video)
A highly subjective record of the filmmaker's involvement with the family of a teenaged American-German girl growing up in rural Mexico set around the planning of her quinceañera and its aftermath.
Video: 3-minute simulation of 2019 installation of What Does She See When She Shuts Her Eyes . Simulation showing the action across two screens with viewer at center. Sound: A.J. McClenon; haiku: Stephanie Barber. Collaboration with Sabina Ott (1955-2018), who died at the beginning of planning the exhibition.
Installation shot from 2019 What Does She See When She Shuts Her Eyes, Chicago. 2-Channel video with sound, plus sculptures
The World Is Round: Sabina Goes ( 2021)
6-channel videos on monitors and goose-neck stands. Audio compositions by Karen Finley, A.J. McClenon, John Cage (“Living Room Music” 1940; words from Gertrude Stein’s The World Is Round, performed by Gert Sorensen and Ars Nova Copenhagen).
Untitled (Sex) 2009, Hair gel, mixed media in glass, 38"h x 8" dia. and Untitled (Sexy) 2009, Champagne, mixed media in glass, 38"h x 8" dia.
Video: Catalogue Vol.3, (2017, 02:43). Third in a series of thirteen films on the topic of the mercantile catalogue. "Merchandise is always a pleasure." — Gertrude Stein
Film still: Catalogue Volume 10, (2017, Digital video and 16mm film, color and B&W, sound, 05:40). Text from George Perec's "Things: a Novel of the Sixties"
Film still from Catalogue Vol.6 (2016, 11:30, B&W, sound, 16mm film on digital scan) Shot using the RH “Interiors” catalogue while audio from a horror movie played in the studio. The film clips were then organized as a tour through the rooms of a house: foyer, living room, dining room, kitchen, study, bath, ending at the bedroom.
Film still from A POTENTIALITY (2020, digital, 16mm film, 16 minutes)
Winner of the Alice Guy Prize Special Mention at FID Marseille 2020: "A film which meticulously reflects upon the materiality of time following specific histories. While focusing on details, the images prevent us from accessing the whole. This gesture reflects the subject where voice has been violently stripped from the people, left silenced."
Image: Still from The House Is Empty (2020) 10-minutes, iPhone, Super 8, and 16mm film— Finale of the Catalogue series: A cockroach, a woman, a dramatic encounter in a closet—from the roach's point of view. Inspired by The Passion According to G.H. (1964) by Clarice Lispector. The house is "played" by A.J. McClenon.
