The Birth of Medusa

Three stills from "The Birth of Medusa," By me in 2007, Newfoundland

After a mini screening last night, I realized that the more out of control my video footage is, the more they are appreciated. Take this one for example, where thousands of jellyfish are slammed through a channel, it was impossible to control anything with the tide being forced through a canyon like space. Timing was everything. I watched this area of the sea for three days before trying to film it. It still was not enough study. The first camera bounced and broke when a wave double backed just a second after the tossed camera left my hands. It was as if the wave just changed its mind. The second back up camera got sucked into an underwater crevice in the process of making this footage, a dangerous rock face climb between surges and frantic tug on the line freed it from the sea cavern, but within an hour it too was broken. One of those cameras became the reworked camera that I am now using to make a piece about dance, so all was not, and never is completely lost. What was gained was this piece of footage. The jellies become my signature diffusion material. Soft and luminous. Beautiful and seemingly fragile, but in the end they survived while I was down 2 cameras. I realized that that which appears fragile is actually the most resilient.

Aquatic

My Waikiki photographs. Working around the idea that the sea has a memory of its own experience.

Reaching Toward Infinity

Video clip from Reaching Toward Infinity, 2008 by Anna Peach
This video was informed by my investigation into optical refraction and Infinity theory. This piece used prisms as both the subject and object used for the creation. I replaced the broken lens on my old icefishing camera with a piece of crystal from a chandelier, then used the remainder of the prisms as the subject. In the editing room, I created a two track video with the same video chain playing in two opposite directions (one forward, one backwards) so that for one instance they meet.

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.

Feed- the video series

With the final day of DiVA being Sunday, I have decided to lay low tonight and recoup with the videos of my own design before seeing the blitz of other artist's works. I realized that feeding is a core theme fit for a quad of videos set in three locations. Feed-Eel, features Moray's in Hawaiian waters, Feed-Fish also in Hawaii, Feed-Swan set under lake Zurich, Switzerland, and Feed-Crow series in Newfoundland, Canada.

In the above featured stills from Feed-Eel, I floated a subway submarine sandwich across a lagoon in Hawaii and filmed the ensuing attack in the minutes that followed. Filmed in two feet of water...I pretty much had the ocean to myself after showing the video to a few on the beach. Hey, whatever works.

The Ocean is my Bathtub/The Bathtub is the Ocean

Video stills by be, from the video of the same name. 2007 Newfoundland

Crow project video

(three stills from one of many...possibly too many videos I made about feeding crows)