• threading water
  • threading water 2
  • threading water 3
  • threading water 5
  • threading water 4

threading water, 2014

video projection
actor: Lisa Birke
videography: Jason Ebanks
editing: Avril Jacobson
assistance: Maryse Otjacques, Orest Tataryn, EJ Lightman
edition of 9, 2 A/P

 

 

In this video we witness a figure swimming on her own in a lake while wielding an enormous comb. The woman in the water is willfully engaged in the pursuit / activity of threading water through the comb. Yet we know that the act is futile and that any liquid that passes through the comb will redistribute itself. The presence of the comb in the lens varies, at times the comb is a type of rake inscribing patterns in the water and at other times it is acting like a weir channeling the water. Sometimes the comb feels like a weapon and other times a form of exorcism. We can unpack her actions as an absurdist act in the Canadian landscape…but questions arise. Is the water analogous to hair…is she trying to tame the wilderness?

Exhibition History

2019   all the world began with a yes. Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener, Ontario. Curated by Crystal Mowry.
2017   Ordinary Obsessions. Art Yard, Frenchtown New Jersey. Curated by Magda Gongalez-Mora.
2015   text, combs, wheels & poems. Olga Korper Gallery, Toronto, Ontario.
2014   relay. Rodman Hall Art Centre,Rodman Hall Art Centre, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario.