Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Jefferson Pinder

Afro Cosmonaut/Alien (White Noise) is now at the Patricia Sweetow Gallery, 77 Geary Street in SF. I went to go see this installation video piece that is an animated collection of over 2,000 photographs.  In addition Pinder includes a series of photographs of himself painting his face white so that he disappears into the all white background/world. 
The video is very visually stunning, with sound that incorporates Butoh performances and speeches from both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Obama. Pinder uses images of fire, civil rights demonstrations, the Earth from outer space surveillance and other aeronautic displays to superimpose on him as a kind of a passive figure. Like he is a victim of technological torture and there is a huge burden on him, as he is engulfed by his world, both past and present, with an unknown future. 

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