The Looker, The Maker, The Red Ribbon Taker
As I read El Golem I became inspired by the poignant relationships that Jorge Luis Borges establishes between God, the rabbi, and the Golem…relationships that I believe become an allegory for what we, as artists often strive to do…create things…
As I read El Golem I became inspired by the poignant relationships that Jorge Luis Borges establishes between God, the rabbi, and the Golem…relationships that I believe become an allegory for what we, as artists often strive to do…create things that are based upon our own image. The Looker, The Maker, The Red Ribbon Taker is a visual narrative that questions and attempts to define the real. In the video, I create a being in my likeness that evolves in layers of light that are painted onto her sculpted face of clay. She is the subject, and I am the maker. I act as her puppeteer. But eventually, the real and the inanimate begin to switch roles, as I become the puppet and the puppet becomes me. The red ribbon is a constant that ties together the insentient and the living. Acting as a symbolic umbilical cord, it can sustain life, but if never broken, it will eventually inhibit what it truly means to be alive.
* This video was originally commissioned by The Point of Contact gallery, located in Syracuse, NY, for the exhibition, The Golem: Visual Visitations. It is my personal interpretation of Jorge Luis Borges’ poem, El Golem.
