A Woman Divided

I am in the field, filming and trying to formulate concepts on the fly as I buzz between subway stops with my mobile video unit. The city awoke like a giant as the weather broke just a couple days ago. Fleet week is upon us, and the city could not be any more surreal. Thousands in white meandering beneath the neon blink of Times Square, Wall Street, and everywhere in between. My first role models were Navy men cousins with mermaid and hula girl tattoos...so I still feel like a peace keeper divided as I film octagon images of marching white legs.

Apparation

This week I did an abnormal amount of introspection as I walked the city. I walked in the middle of the night and criss crossing the streets in between jobs. I discovered fantastic places right around the corner from where I have been living for six months. I was seeking to find potential in the common, as is usual for me. Maybe focusing on the idea of strength against adversity more than usual in the past week. I made a lot of progress with both my editing and my subject selection, even a few advances in the area of style. Then what do I see through my lens, but what appears to be an apparation of a little girl. It seems to be perfectly impossible which was just what I was looking for. I think in German an apparation is 'Geistererscheinung' but I may have added a few letters, for it seems even too long for German! But no matter what you call it, it made for a wonderful four minute video where the impossible seems to come to life.

Inspired Walk

It was an interesting day today. Some healing, a chance to rest, a chance to eat. I laid in the sun, discovered a lake in the middle of uptown. Took the time to notice Spring before it goes away. I looked at light and shadow, talked about art with a four year old on the crosstown. I walked and walked. I came home to find my neighbor was throwing away a giant framed color photo of Milford Sound, New Zealand a place where I have stood. I watched my new videos that only make sense when seen as video. They fall apart as stills. The people blend into facades and the buildings melt into sky in kaleidoscopic images.

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.

Camouflage Performance

I have just received an acceptance email that will allow me to perform in a festival this month. If you are in the New York City area and would like to participate in 'Camouflage' please go to the 'complete profile' section (seen at right side of screen) and email me.

Below is an exerpt from my explaination that I provided for the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu

"... measuring approximately 131”x131” It is a piece of government issue desert camouflage that I have altered by adding hundreds of hand cut pieces of Hawaiian shirts. These shirt pieces were then hand tied to the existing camouflage to create a quilt like effect. I originally got the idea when I discovered that Honolulu lei makers were put to work during WWII making handmade camouflage. I thought of the phrase that we hear so frequently, that a family has ‘military ties.’ I decided to make a more palpable interpretation by utilizing used clothing to represent the people of Hawaii, and hand tying this representation in place. "

I later learned that entire buildings in Honolulu were covered in handmade camouflage so to try to make the city look like the jungle.

Most of you that know my earlier Hawaii pieces know that I frequently use the idea of camouflage as a reference to species self-preservation. It has become another way to tie us back to the earth for our own sakes.