hand model
2min, video. 2019.
A study in how subtle changes often go unnoticed, but amass over time. Even when the transformation becomes drastic, we sometimes fail to realize anything has happened at all.
Artist Note
The medium I occupied myself with for much of my early life was painting, until the weakness in my hands also weakened my grip on a paintbrush, which catalyzed my endeavours into photography, and eventually, filmmaking.
After a few years of participating on various film sets, I found that I was still facing barriers between myself and the tool I sought to create with—in this case, a camera.
In the process of experimenting with ways that I could access the equipment, I found that by down-sizing my film set and using a macro-lens, I could create my own tiny world that posed fewer barriers than I am met with in the full-scale natural world or a traditional film set.
This allowed me to work with organic movement in a way that was accessible for me to manipulate, and in a more abstract way. By incorporating ink in my film practice, I found that I could pursue the kind of abstraction I found in my early life as a painter.
I made how did we get here? by documenting the gradual reaction between ink and soap in a petri dish. The visual changes between the beginning and end and end of the piece occur very slowly, and are almost imperceptible. The audio is a single sine tone that fades in, and then out, very slowly over the 4 minutes and 20 seconds of the film. Though it’s subtle, and almost inaudible, like the changes in the film’s visuals, when I’ve played this film in a theater setting the sound can be felt through the floor at its peak volume.
In the beginning, the red ink washes across much of the frame, forming a shape in the middle that I think resembles a human heart. As the paint dries, it begins to form a pattern against the bright white background - an animation light board. The pattern almost resembles a bird's eye view of a river system. By the end of the film, the paint has dried even more, and the red rivers that form the pattern almost appear to have ‘dried up’, as has the heart-shaped form in the center.
Later, I realized that this film was a sort of self-portrait, and in particular, a portrait of my motor neurons, which control my muscles, and which, given the disease I have, weaken slowly over time—a process which is often imperceptible to me as it happens.
Image Description
In this piece, the process of red ink mixed with soap drying in a petri dish is captured through a macro lens over the span of 4 minutes. In the beginning of the film, the red ink washes across much of the frame, forming a shape in the middle that resembles a human heart. As the film progresses, the paint slowly dries, and begins to form a pattern against the bright white background - an animation light board. The pattern resembles a birds eye view of a river system. By the end of the piece, the paint has dried even more, such that the red rivers that form the pattern almost appear to have ‘dried up’, as has the heart shaped form in the center.
Audio Description
There’s a subtle audio track on the piece that is most effectively heard (and felt) via a theater sound system—at home, I recommend using headphones. The audio is a single sine tone that fades in, and then out, very slowly over the 4 minutes and 20 seconds of the film. Though it’s subtle, and almost imperceptible, like the changes in the film’s visuals, when played in a theater setting, the sound can be felt through the floor at its peak volume.