2 X 22016

2 x 2 came about by chance when I arbitrarily cut together two of my recent short films, each made with different intent, and with music by two very different contemporary composers, Lois V Vierk and composer/cellist Ha-Yang Kim. Juxtaposing these two unlikely works would of course highlight differences within our sensibilities, but what was more compelling to me was to shed light on what we have in common. Each of us works within a layered, complex, and quite rigorous language of our own making; my guess is that the three of us hold a deep respect for the audience, and so seek ways within our unique media to create space, agency, and desire whereby each spectator may form her/his own meaning. But in no way did I anticipate the spark and mysterious deep resonance I experienced when I put these works together in a single piece. I’ve come to think of 2 x 2 as my “e-motion diptych” – and as a project that seems to transcend the unique sensibilities of each of us.

Goldfish Variations (2012) is a playful work comprised of sketches made with a minute of iPhone footage re-envisioned within 18 video layers, shaped with, against, around, and inspired by Vierk’s densely textured, continually shifting, tightening, building, deeply riveting forward motion sound flow of her piece River Beneath the River.
Ghostdance for a New Century and Kim’s piece LENS were completed independently. We met just as I was in the final edit of a re-working of my 1980 silent 16mm film Ghost Dance—now a silent film/video landscape tapestry sprung from a single 8mm film shot decades earlier while hiking rim-to-floor of Canyon de Chelly, Arizona. I discovered Kim’s extraordinary piece LENS, set it on my finished cut and with a single shift, the two came together as if intended. For me, her intense, contemplative, unpredictable and wideopen sound expands the space of my picture exponentially, while my layers of rich desert colors and cyclic imagery add a tension to her haunting sound by “click,” counter-point, and ground.
Ha-Yang Kim will perform live with Ghostdance for a New Century.
2 x 2 may be looped and played continuously as a wall-piece Installation Project