SLEEPWALKING CIRCUS | 2010 (click to expand project)
In Sleepwalking Circus, a stop-motion video plays on a loop inside the handmade carnival tent. It consists of over a thousand long-exposure images of me working in my studio at night. In it, I build a stage for my sculptures, which are treated as both props and actors –and sometimes move about on their own. I continue the banal, exhausting work without noticing them, and proceed to dismantle the stage and leave the studio. The video loops and I enter to begin again. The sculptures depicted half-finished in the in the video are the same shrouded trixter figures that guard the tent doors; one (an Ellegua) is made from hand-braided acrylic hair extensions, the other (a Harlequin) is resined and hand-painted dropcloth. I was interested in examining the confusion and monotony of studio work, and the magic that sometimes results. The tent creates a way to show the video in a controlled and evocative environment.
Photos: Gigi Gatewood