ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
PICTURE BERLIN 2016
As an artist in residence in Berlin in 2016, I made work for various galleries including, Z/KU, Meinblau Projektum, and Tête.
The work focused on my roots and my struggles with them. My Grandfather was a German Jew who was displaced during the Holocaust.
The work was a representation of how I felt living in Germany and the pull of my Grandfather who had passed away that same year. It was comprised of video art, sound, images, historical documents, research, and a visit to my Grandfather’s hometown and previous home/family business.
“Night of Terror”
Picture Berlin Gallery
“Night of Terror” is a video I made consisting of interview segments of my Great Uncle from the Shoah Foundation Project headed by Steven Spielberg, and celebratory videos the Nazi’s filmed during Kristallnacht. It was projected on a stone wall in a small corner of the Picture Berlin Gallery.
“DISTORT TOUR”
&
“THERE AIN’T NO HOPE BABY”
Meinblau Projektum
Distort Tour and ‘There Ain’t No Hope Baby’ explore my unhealthy obsession with my Great Grandfather’s butcher shop and the town my Grandfather grew up in. This obsession, while in Berlin, ultimately consumed me and burdened me heavily, hindering my social behavior and overall state of being.
Distort Tour is a recording of my computer endlessly scrolling through appropriated video from a 360 ° tour of the town of Neustadt an der Weintraße. I pulled out as far as the image could be displayed, creating a distorted loop and video game like world. The imagery in the video is idyllic and contributed to the fantasy I had about the town, while the distortion represents the actuality of my experience while visiting. The endless looping of this imagery, plus the consistent notifications appearing on the screen at the same time, speaks directly about my obsession, it’s intrusion on my daily life, and its negative effects on my mental health.
‘There Ain’t No Hope Baby’ is a German toll-free hotline I created that the viewer was able to call while watching Distort Tour. The poster was drawn by another resident, Bobby Smith, and depicts a dream I had of my Grandfather standing in my doorway. The hotline directed the viewer to a three-minute recording of an interview of my Great Uncle speaking about his traumatic experience growing up in Nazi Germany. The hotline was only available to German residents and expired the day I left Berlin, signifying the closure I needed to receive before ending my experience in Germany.
Viewers at the exhibition would watch the video (18 min in full - combined all of the views below) on a large scale wall and would call the phone number on the posters provided to listen to the audio while separately watching the video to create an overall distant experience.