Artist Statement

Artist's Statement

In many of my films, I explore the subject of exile and home, examining how new technologies and culture intersect around questions of identity and emigration.

This interests me personally because I was an ex-patriot, living in France for 14 years.  My anthropology background has given me insight into this phenomenon as people become displaced around the world because of economics and war.

After producing two videos on this subject matter, I am currently doing pre-production work on cross- cultural representation and transnational identity for the experimental documentary, Dwelling in Displacement, dealing with how political exiles and ex-patriots cope with displacement and loss of homeland.  To this end, I applied for a short-term visitor grant at the Smithsonian Institute, as well as French funding, since the majority of the filming will take place in Paris. This piece, Dwelling in Displacement, will be Part III of my trilogy on memory, identity and home, begun with Home Sweet Home and The Road Home.

In addition, I am interested in looking at concrete ways that animation and installation can be integrated with film/video to explore the boundaries of those mediums, such as:

  • My most recent video for the web, Attached, combines the art form of poetry, video and music as a collaborative project between poet, videographer and musician.
  • The Attached collaboration has led me to work with a local sculpture artist on an installation we will produce using footage from this video, integrating material objects and images.
  • Currently in production, Moving Day is an animated narrative based on a short story I wrote, which has received partial funding.
  • Previous collaborative work while in France involved dance and film, as I particularly enjoy the synergy of integrating multiple mediums and artists.

Although my primary writing interests are in film/video criticism (see my film reviews), previous publications have treated the documentary in intercultural contexts as well as issues in anthropology, education and science.