Chandelier

stills from chandelier video by Anna Peach, May 2008, New York City

When I was a child I used to try to view the world through my kaleidoscope or my View master. Wandering around a field trying to see the rows of corn or hundreds of chickens through falling pieces of colored plastic. This is not so far from that. I made this series of videos with thoughts of a friend up north who is leaving a place that she loves for financial survival. I wished her strength in the best possible way I could think of...by making a video tribute that speaks of the sea but isn't the sea. It is a video whose subject and difusion lens are a broken New York City Chandelier that I found in the dumpster last week. I wanted her to see that I too miss the place where she is leaving. I am haunted by it. The icebergs even came by early to say goodbye to her. The inspiration stays within you regardless of where you are. You can find an iceberg's beauty in a city dumpster, if you are inspired enough to look.

So I began my 'Art Sunday' on a mission...

I took up my broken ice camera that fell victim to the rocks of the Hudson river this past January. I had then managed to save it before the electronics were flooded. Its micro glass lens was shattered so I figured that maybe I could treat it like a pinhole camera of sorts and fashion a new lens.I scraped out the old broken lens and exchanged it with a piece of chandelier Chrystal, then today I viewed the world through it.

These octagon planes captivated me to try to do a tribute to the Japanese scientist who froze water Chrystal and photographed them...more on that later I am off to film the great NYC chandeliers.