This is a secret communication between cells of a fictional rebel group called the “Reset Faction.” It consists of a 16mm film shipping box packed with a digital micro-projector and instructions for displaying the video content and forwarding to another cell. The video contains appropriated Hollywood movie clips of female characters striking back violently against oppressive male characters.
This piece uses damaged slides excerpted from a collection inherited from Cornell University ecology professor, Dr. Richard B. Fischer. They are laid out on a light table as they would be on a filmmaker’s storyboard, in three rows, each row associated with a character. The accompanying audio presents letters, written between these characters, read in the voice of each. The letters spell out a story in which mysterious photographic errors, visible on the slides, are determined to be messages from Planet Earth, asking the characters to act as emissaries begging humanity to treat it more gently.
This office occupies an imaginary space inside my head in which a character called the Message Control Officer works. This bureaucrat’s job is to review communications I make and deem them “Cleared for Transmission,” (okay for anyone to see) or “Confidential,” (only intended for a select few, or entirely private). The office is populated with an archive of my personal communications ranging from love letters and mixed tapes to video productions, and childhood schoolwork.
The viewer is invited to interact with any of the content, enacting the role of the Message Control Officer, questioning whether these items should be public or not.
Our culture places enormous value on media stars, in large part through photographs. In fact, image is often all that separates celebrities from the masses. I see the star machine not as something that catapults talent to the top, but as a control device that implies a devaluation of everyone who cannot measure up to our airbrushed demigods. My subjects are assorted family, friends, and acquaintances. They are by no means celebrities. This work was made in reaction to the social construct of celebrity worship, while reasserting the power of the everyday individual.
Images are made into faux marketing materials and installed as a make-believe record store. The store is fully functional, complete with sound art in the listening station CD player, items for sale and a staff member taking cash and making change.
