The Spider's Wheels Part 1, 2006
The Spider’s Wheels is a cinematic diorama-installation/performance incorporating projected imagery and sculptural elements. Projection viewing areas, all within or attached to a single gallery room/viewing space, include a small floating wire mesh “shelf” with a stitched vellum screen, a large mechanical box with perforated metal flaps, which rise and fall within a 3 minute cycle, and a rear projected loop viewed through a door’s peephole (the door is set about 35 degrees away from the viewer, causing the viewer to lean in, in order to view the loop). The Spider’s Wheels merges elements of my performance and film work, placing the ephemeral, projected image in the same location as tangible objects and set pieces. The Spider’s Wheels’ elliptical, montage-based structure centers around the fictitious biography of a forgotten early film performer, the star of a (fictitious) serial about a female detective “The Spider”. Known as the Serial Queens, the heroines of early film serials were a version of today’s super heroes, playing out roles in films that were rarely allowed in daily life. I’m interested in this heightened display of feminine power, which appears and disappears throughout film history, mirroring or defying the cultural and political movements of the day.
The Spider’s Wheels involves a combination of approaches, and merges a sense of pre-cinematic “attractions” with contemporary materials and technology. I am working with aesthetic forms that have influenced my work for two decades: early film, experimental film, and pre-cinema. Hand made objects that combine contemporary and ancient media (Plexiglas, perforated metal, window screen, and stitching) and puppet theater. The projected imagery includes both rephotographed “found” footage, and original footage of an actress in early film makeup and costume. Parts 1-3 were exhibited in May 2006 at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, as a part of the city of Los Angeles Artists Fellowship exhibition.
