The Aperture of Ghostings2001

Elsa Kirk 5 min. 1999 Catherine Street 3 min. 2001 Creased Robe Smile 4.5 min. 2001 In the mid 1990's I unearthed three photographic contact sheets of 3 different women in a thrift store in the East Village. Only one was named and dated – Elsa Kirk, Feb 22 '63, but all looked like they were from the same photographer and time period. There were 12 images per sheet of these Models/Actresses and I found myself quite moved by the strong sense of aspiration in their poses; a poignant blend of fiction and reality. At first, I was unable to translate these images into collage animation. So instead, I began making xerox enlargements of the sheets which I turned into a series of flat collages. Eventually these became storyboards for the films and led to the hieroglyphic montage style of the completed trilogy – an approach that I had intuited when first attracted to the potential of cutouts two decades ago, but had never been able to capture on film.