9-channel video installation (each unique video 1 hr. 6 min), Installation 10′ (L) x 4′ (W) x 3.5′ (H)

(Materials: 1 hr. film of myself telling a story I’d never told before, television, video camera, green screen, 12 hours, 9 identical video monitors, chords, sculptural base)

The piece started like an experiment with the question “Can a story die?” I wanted to capture the process of a story’s life and/or death, from its first iteration, to the last time it could be tolerated. To examine this, I filmed myself telling a story that I’d never told before: a mint-condition narrative. I hid it away for six months to forget it – it was rediscovered as a readymade. Then, I filmed myself watching it nine times in a row, over eleven hours. But then I realized something was wrong… My experimental scenario failed in that I never lost interest in the story. Instead, my attention fluctuated and warped; my body repeatedly reacted to words and phrases that my conscious mind didn’t register.

Arranged in a casual chronology, the array of identical monitors gives the initial appearance of redundancy, though the content is unique: each video comprises one full telling of the story, with a unique audio made from fragmented bits of the original story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(c) Lizzy De Vita 2011