Listen to the soundtracks for each piece, here.
Aika Akhmetova
Puppy Prelude
Single-channel video,
11 min. 43 sec.
In the Soviet Union, a specific shade of blue paint was widely used in apartment complexes, municipal buildings, and fences. This blue was made primarily for marking civilian machinery and cars and was produced in surplus, making it the cheapest paint you could buy. A shade of green was used to mark military machinery. Once upon a time there was a puppy, a naughty puppy who loves to find their way into these traditional, sacred, nostalgic blue and green paints and make a mess.
This new video merges Aika’s performative practice as a naughty puppy with their interest in tending to and filming the natural world. Puppy Prelude focuses on the puppy’s backstory and origins. It is an attempt by the puppy to understand themselves by turning to other creatures, such as ducks, ants, dragonflies, and snow leopards, and examining oneself in the manner in which we examine and learn most about those creatures: through a nature documentary narrative. The puppy searches for answers inside their home, outside in NYC parks and zoos, and even turns to Aristotle in a futile attempt to categorize themself and find belonging.
Brandon Follick
Live From the Garden
Single-channel video,
10 min. 5 sec.
LIVE FROM THE GARDEN is a comedic video art project depicting audience members throwing tomatoes at standup comedians. Hosted by Brandon Follick and Shelby Slauer, Live From The Garden draws upon the rich culture of arming theatergoers with throwable produce, inviting them to participate in a spectator’s privilege popularized by Vaudeville.
This video project not only concentrates on opening up a new in-person reaction to standup during an era where technofascism has decimated a person’s desire to exit the home and witness the spontaneity of live comedy, but also challenges the choreographed psychology between audience and performer to disrupt lazy, passive consumption of comedy. By both showcasing Brooklyn-based comedians who belong to groups historically excluded by the industry and employing mechanics of standup special production, Live From The Garden aims to be both a subversion of today’s conventional comedy productions while capturing a snapshot of the performance project as it continues to evolve today.
That, and I want people to laugh.
Camila Galaz
The Pleasure of Networking
Single-channel video,
6 min. 7 sec.
The Pleasure of Networking is a research-based video artwork exploring how early computer advertising humanized the personal computer, laying the groundwork for our contemporary relationship with technology. It invites audiences to consider how emotional attachment to machines continues to be designed, marketed, and normalized today.
Dr. Evilletown
Third Time’s the Charm
Single-channel video,
11 min. 45 sec.
Third Time’s the Charm explores the exploitation of our planet through a story and growing practice known as “the three sisters.” Using my personal experience as a metaphor for ecological exploitation, urban and rural landscapes allow me to use this legend and ecological approach in dual capacities: as an environmental warning and a reverence for our world. This work includes an interactive percussive instrument fabricated out of crude crochet techniques and found metal objects.
This video piece is accompanied by a textile instrument on the wall that visitors are invited to play.
Juan “Wamoo” Alvarez
Duck Duck Goose Legends
Single-channel video,
13 min. 37 sec.
Duck Duck Goose Legends is a 13-minute single-channel video that takes the form of a livestream edit uploaded to a gamer’s YouTube channel. After a miserable shift, a mailroom clerk sits down with Duck Duck Goose 64, a Nintendo 64-era game he played as a child. What begins as a lighthearted playthrough turns into a reflection on nostalgia experienced entirely through screens.
Nate Dorr
All That Is Lost Ends Up in the Waters
Single-channel video,
10 min. 15 sec.
Because I had learned to draw out what water concealed, I was enlisted by an obscure city agency to preserve less tangible traces…
A story told by water chemistry and photochemistry along the fractured shores of Brooklyn and Queens.