Up to New: Black, Blue
videos by Gretchen Skogerson
Gretchen Skogerson is a video and installation artist best known for pristine, coolly minimalist work. The freedom of subject matter and portrayal of time in experimental film and video; the connections between everyday movement and modern dance; and the seductive power of highly aestheticized images all inform her practice. Her work documents the intersection of aloneness and togetherness within contemporary society. In her latest videos she uses re-creation and horror to produce resonant accounts of violence, highlighting power struggles surrounding race, class, gender and sexuality.
PROGRAM:
CARS & KILLERS (2013, 2:00) is a visceral piece–visually and aurally a moving target. Mysterious, speedy and gory videos are stitched together guided with a voiceover of directives from a spam email on avoiding attacks.
BLACK ICE (2104, 1:45) responds to Michael Brown's murder in Ferguson, MO by juxtaposing anti-gravitationally breaking ice against a police report.
swf, 29, seeks self (2004, 9:00) combines found footage, a tale of loss and random collaboration.
Nightparking (2008, 12:00) records the imprint of industrial and suburban landscapes on their nocturnal inhabitants.
Having a Conversation You Can’t Hear (2012, 1:34) showcases a headphone-wearing hula hooper shimmies underneath the moonlight.
Frontier Step (2007, 8:40) reveals a glimpse of the workers atop the Superdome from July 2006. Their uncluttered domain provides a sharp contrast to the unseen, destroyed city of New Orleans below.
Fifth Season (2015, 3:30) is an accounting of waterlogged turned lifeless buildings.
DRIVING LESSON (2012, 4:00) imagines a disgruntled driving instructor pointedly ignoring his student.
Everybody Has A Reason: Angela Simpson (2015, 8:00) is a loose re-staging of a 2012 web interview between Angela Simpson and a Phoenix, AZ television reporter triangulated against a meditation on personal wilderness. Simpson had just been convicted to life in prison for the brutal torture and murder of a wheelchair-bound man. Simpson's interview challenges more standard "murderer narratives" through her lack of remorse, her refusal to blame her crime on mental illness and her belief that women have the same right to commit violent acts as men.
