Wall Drawings: Revisited (the miniature stories) from Beth Cohen on Vimeo.
Clip: 1:27 minute
Full Performance: 60 minutes
In my most recent body of work, Revisited (the miniature stories), I have taken three approaches to discuss time and class. Life size black and white portraits of chairs, vernacular old and recreated family snapshots, and large tracings from video projections of entire rooms where the chairs were photographed. I have broken down time into three different explanations: I see the black and white portraits as timeless, almost devoid of time. I see the snapshots as the longing to return to a time past. Susan Stewart states that, “We imagine childhood as if it were the other end of a tunnel—distanced, diminutive, and clearly framed.” What do we see now from the adult lens? And, for Wall Drawings, I see the drawings and video projections as the synthesis of the two photographic works. There is a rule set for each drawing; I have five minutes to draw each projected room, and if I don’t finish in time then many of the details of each room are left out.
The final installation included the 11 drawings that I made during the 60 minute performance. There was a shortened continuous loop running from the performance in the installation space.
