“Distance”. 2-Channel. HD. 9:14. Color. Sound. 2006-2007.
In Distance two opposing cameras track a continuous path from one end of a very long room to the other, passing each other to trade places. We see a bank of windows facing the Hudson River in one and a wall with closed doors in the other. This piece is freely inspired by Michael Snow’s seminal film Wavelength (1967), which he refers to as a metaphor for consciousness. Distance is intended as a reflection on a consciousness in flux - on time passing, progress, movement towards the unknown, and the anxious anticipation of an uncertain future. Snow refers to the fragments of narrative in Wavelength as the four human events. These provide a starting point for the pretense of a psychologically fraught narrative sequence. Drama and suspense build as the cameras move forward, tensions between characters escalate, and the events lead to a dubious death. Two channels present simultaneous continuous takes, incorporating the real-time mechanics into the action of the scene. Actors, extras and shooters perform, pose and observe, delineating a range of participation, while foregrounding the acts of waiting, viewing and witnessing.
Actors: Christen Clifford, Rosi Hayes, David Mazzeo, Steven Rattazzi, Sonja Rzepski
Camera: Jay King, Birgit Rathsmann
Director, Editor, Producer, Extra: Alix Pearlstein
Online Editor, Extra: Lili Chin
Production Manager: Joshua Walker
Audio Mix: Zeljko McMullen
Production Stills: Peter Field Peck
Produced in cooperation with VOOM HD LAB
Executive Producer: Ali Hossaini, Associate Producer: Lili Chin
Additional Post Production: Final Frame, NYC
Filmed at Boylan Studios in the Starrett-Lehigh Building, NYC
Installation: EV + A 2007, A Sense of Place: Annual Exhibition of Visual Art Ireland,
curated by Klaus Ottmann, Limerick City Gallery of Art, Limerick, Ireland.