4 x 4

4 videos, 4 artists, 4 months

Kate Nartker
Ten, 2012
Kate Nartker converts videos into woven cloth and then back into stop motion animation films. Drawing from her family’s home video collection, Nartker creates stills which she then weaves line by line on a loom. In reframing everyday moments into a physical form through a time-intensive craft, Nartker reconstructs and abstracts her memories. Ten is comprised of a series of portraits of the artist from different points in the her life. By exposing the edges of her woven portraits, Nartker allows a glimpse into her process.

Sarah Klein
Housecoat, 2010,
RT 6:55 minutes with sound
Sarah Klein’s humorous films center on a modern day woman attending to her domestic environment. Klein’s simple line drawings animate the character as she engages in both everyday and surreal scenarios. In spite of whatever strange, devious or perilous situation she encounters, she remains calm and ambivalent, suggesting an internal struggle within an unseen and private world.

Ezra Wube
Born and raised in Ethiopia and now living in the United States, Ezra Wube’s artwork conveys his dual sense of identity in straddling two very different worlds. Hisab takes place in a city similar to the artist’s hometown of Addis Ababa, where goats, donkeys and dogs are common residents in the colorful urban environment. Working from memory, imagination and real-life studies, Wube’s process reflects the ever-changing flux of life. After completing a scene made of oil on canvas, he then takes a picture of it. Next, he paints over the image to build the next frame. To make the new scene, he has to recollect the previous frame since it has already been erased and fragmented.

Vanessa Woods
The Mansion of Happiness, 2010,
RT: 5:12, 16mm black and white film transferred to video; Sound by Cheryl E. Leonard and Anka Draugelates
The Mansion of Happiness inspired by poet Robin Ekiss’s book of the same name. The Mansion of Happiness explores the philosophical boundaries between myth and memory and between our inner and outer worlds. Made from original photograms, and hundreds of nineteenth century collage elements, the film includes landscape of miniatures, dolls and toys, magic acts and mysterious passageways.