lily weeks
bleached overbites
In my video art, I stitch together wide arrays of sounds and images in ways that feel a bit excessive. I often repurpose media that has been poorly preserved, particularly from queer archives, in order to highlight histories of emotion. I pull from a wide variety of difficult-to-read texts: pulp novels with inconsistencies that make the plot impossible to follow, letters that are poorly preserved, narratives that are sometimes just fragments of thoughts and ideas. My interest extends to digital realms, to blurred images, unprofessional films, videos that were uploaded as jokes between close friends. Sometimes I pair these appropriated materials with absurd and personal narratives, to situate the complexities of interpersonal relationships within and alongside queer histories. Sometimes the visceral nature of fleeting feelings is the subject itself.
The horror genre influences much of my work. I am specifically drawn towards sentimentality in horror, and interested in how emotionally resonant moments can be particularly accessible through extreme or absurd situations. My visuals pursue a similar extremity through heavy editing and quick cuts. However, I also edit searching for flashes of intimacy in queer subjects and vulnerable bodies. I design my soundtracks to proceed at a slower pace. I often think about gross, disgusting, and/or visceral noises, and the reactions they incite. I want the viewers to feel uncomfortably close to my subjects, and explore the variety of emotions accessible through this discomfort.
VADA Senior Exhibition 2023 main page