MFA Graduation show, Sandberg Instituut
Single channel video installation (09:43 min), 7 wooden sculptures,

HET Hem, Amsterdam / 2020

Filmed in my garden, the camera observes objects I carved from rotten, compressed wood. I treated the decaying material of
Euro-pallets until it became clay-like, allowing light and weather to animate the forms. The aim was to make objects that appear as totems or ritual residue in a period of waiting and reminiscing during lockdown. The video captures serendipitous moments – the uprooting of a tree, a sleeping moth waking up at night.

“Have you ever become friendly with a butterfly? One fell asleep on our cap in Vienna. She stayed with us as we wandered around, in and out of bars, following rabbits and streetlamps through the night. When she woke up, she blinked at us slowly for quite a long while, unfurling and recomposing herself repeatedly, deliciously, until she was sure we were properly attentive. Which do you wonder first: what they’re doing to you? Or what you’re doing to them? Maybe you’re one to split the difference instead. “What’s a transmitter without a receiver?” you’re asking yourself. A parallel world, that’s what. They are waiting, we are waiting, for that agency we sense but don’t fully comprehend.”

– Angie Keefer