sapphic serenade

HD video, fringe, performance, surround sound

12' x 6' x 9'

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Sapphic Serenade is a biennially produced series of video installations. The term "sapphic serenade" comes from researching the Lesbian Herstory Archives and the 1992 Lesbian Avenger's handbook, in which they identify the act of the serenade as a direct political gesture.

 

You Belong to Me (2015), Bang Bang (2018), and Don’t Worry Baby (2020), are immersive installations that combine video, performance, and synthetic fringe. Through a repetitious slowing of time, each video artwork creates a tender and nostalgic space, holding attention, while also exploring the relationship between technology, language, and identity.

 

For this work, a single figure is projected through five curtains of fringe that are suspended from the ceiling. Similar to a bird in a cage, the figure serenades viewers by lip synching remixed lyrics from a love ballad as a looping performance. Fringe stands in as a queered non-curtain, non-screen, sculptural material to reference transformation and multiplicity.