2007
Video / Performance
26' 00"
A live audio, cinematic performance for a slow-motion
ambient Zombie movie. Still Life (almost) is a crawling detournment of
Jorge Grau's 1974 masterpiece Non
si deve profanare il sonno dei morti. Rather than focus on the
gore and horrific elements of the film, short clips re-shot from a television
screen are used to portray a world full of lonlienss, unrequited love,
and urban despair. The Zombie becomes a metaphorical vehicle for the critique
of a cannibalistic society which furthers the cycle consumption and decay.
The soundtrack is a similarly distorted and haunting interpretation, reminiscent
of numerous zombie and horror films.
This project was created for a performance on St. Valentine's Day, a holiday
which is perhaps more cullturaly valued for its consumer tendencies -
the purchase and consumption of greeting cards, chocolates, and roses
- than for its Chaucer inspired tradition of courtly love.
Still Life (almost) is unquestionably an homage to the genre of Zombie
films. The haunting and often grotesque imagery, beautiful and strange
soundtracks, and implicit cultural critique embodied in so many of these
films holds a place very dear to my heart.