Dead Heat2009

"DEAD HEAT" gets its title from "dead heat" meaning "tied race". In this video, the screen is split into 4 horizontal layers in which moving subjects (bird, horse, myself, ship) start together, then repeatedly traverse it at their own speeds, intermittently lapping, but starting and ending simultaneously on first and last frames. We all start and end in the same way – birth and death – but our "speeds," our lives, within that span are very different. Like almost all Barbara Rosenthal's work, it is formed over time from several inspirations that she records when first noticed or created, then later composited or issued when their relationships, and meanings, become apparent. The four segments were individually recorded by various video technologies in 1987, 2005, 2006, and 2009. Premiered during Barbara Rosenthal's solo mini-retrospective "33 Existential Videos", curated by Klaus Eisenlohr for Directors Lounge at Z-Bar Screening Room, Berlin, 2009. Reviewed by Clare Carswell in Flash Art Interntional, Oct. 2009.
CULTURAL STATEMENT ABOUT "DEAD HEAT": Since AIDS and Cancer have been picking off so many of my friends and relatives, I've noticed that although these issues are addressed in art politically, very little is really said in American art about death in a metaphoric way. This is an attempt to address that issue.