des abends  2 channel HD video installation

HD video, 16mm film, 35 mm black & white slide still film to digital transfer; 14:07

Installation photos: Courtesy of Smack Mellon/Etienne Frossard

Filmed in the countryside of Finland and New Hampshire, des abends is a two channel video installation with a fictional narrative recounted over images of snowy landscapes documented with HD video, 16mm film and black & white positive film photographs. I wrote and filmed this piece while my father grappled with early on set Alzheimer's disease. A narrator reflects on the surreal effects that the short winter days and harsh landscape can have on the mind, while another voice weaves in and out of her storyline, reciting passages from Frankenstein in which the creature struggles to understand his surroundings and strives to express his thoughts and feelings. Both of their stories address grief and coming to terms with things we cannot control. The score for the film was composed of excerpts of a piano player learning to play Schumann's Fantasiestucke Op. 12, no 1. Des Abends.