The Spider’s Wheels

(2006-2009)

The Spider’s Wheels

Parts 1-3

2006/2009

The Spider’s Wheels is an installation in three parts, all viewed within a single room/viewing space. The Installation centers on the struggles of a forgotten (fictitious) early film performer, the star of “The Spider, a serial about a female detective.  The central section of the installation (Part 2) consists of a 3 minute film loop of The Spider crawling through a tunnel.  The footage is projected on all surfaces of a mechanical, slamming box. The Spider crawls and crawls but never gets anywhere.

About halfway through  Part 2’s 3-minute loop loop, the metal skin of the box lifts up, revealing the stitched/sanded plexiglas surface, which is visually soft and luminous.  The skin/doors remain up for 30 seconds, then  slam down indecorously, with a surprising sound that reverberates.  In the final minute, The Spider begins to crawl backwards, and her clothes shred and catch on fire. The loop begins again, but the music continues on a 6 minute loop.

Part 1 of The Spider’s Wheels is a tiny projection in the opposite corner of the room, with woman’s face emerging and submerging, a barely visible white spider crawling on her.

In Part 3 of The Spider’s Wheels, the viewer walks up a few steps to a door that can’t open. There is a peephole through which another film is viewed, created from a mix of found and created footage of The Spider, with a spider crawling over her face.

Music: Valerie Opielski
Performer: Andrea LeBlanc
Technical Design: Bill Ballou

Materials: Digital video from found sources and original 16mm footage.
Sanded, sewn, and printed Plexiglas, perforated aluminum, welded steel, motor.

Room sized installation. Mechanical Box dimensions (closed):  50″ x 29″ x 11″