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Little Dances of Misfortunes
Ladders 1 (Production still)
Little Dances of Misfortunes
Ladders 1 (Production still)
2001

In September 2001, days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, I surround myself with a group of friends to film a series of short stop-motion vignettes. The filming takes place almost entirely in darkness, illuminated only through the application of phosphorescent paint to either the bodies of the participants or the props that surround them. We charge the applied paint with light, like batteries, and then turn off the lights. The participant’s bodies retain natural light for an instant that is almost instantaneously replaced with the light from the paint. This double motion of disappearing and appearing light creates a pulse like rhythm, repeated transitions from light to dark, and from figuration to abstraction. Most of the action is filmed from on top of a tall ladder, which on film makes the performers seem unbound by the law of gravity. The scenes are short, a never-ending cycle of people finding each other only to break apart.

Little Dances of Misfortunes consists of five edited videos that are synchronized to a piece of sampled Baroque music that is layered and arranged to suit the mood of the videos.
Little Dances of Misfortunes consists of five edited videos that are synchronized to a piece of sampled Baroque music that is layered and arranged to suit the mood of the videos.