The multifaceted films and videos in this program explore how the means used to document or preserve a subject might also have a transformative effect. The process of documentation adds a layer that can sometimes conceal as much as it reveals. From drawings to diaries to taxidermy, these artists invite us to look between the layers.

Tom and Jerry - Ekkaphob Sumsiripong

THAILAND, 2014, 16MM AND VIDEO ON DIGITAL VIDEO, 5 MIN

A moving picture that seems to chase its own tail. This layered series of films and videos create a dizzying dance in a document of their own making.

Untitled The City at Night - Ane Hjort Guttu

NORWAY, 2013, DIGITAL VIDEO, 22 MIN

An interview with an unseen anonymous artist provides the mysterious core of this work. For more than 20 years she has been creating an immense private archive of abstract drawings documenting what she encounters on her nocturnal walks through Oslo. While this video allows a fleeting glimpse of her oeuvre the artist maintains that she will never exhibit the project. For her it is enough that it exists, a secret witness to the city streets.

The Peacock - Andrew Kim

USA, 2014, 16MM, 12 MIN

The extravagant beauty of the eponymous bird is turned inside out in this film. Symbolic of eternal life in many cultures and religions, this film documents one peacock as it is reborn through taxidermy. This disturbing and fascinating film serves as a poignant reminder that beauty is fleeting and under our finery, be it genetic or selected, our flesh is all pretty much the same.

The Private Life of Fenfen - Leslie Tai

USA/CHINA, 2013, SD VIDEO ON DIGITAL VIDEO, 29 MIN

An extraordinary collaboration between Leslie Tai and Guo Lifen aka, Fenfen,The Private Life of Fenfen is a remarkably raw and moving document of three years in the life of a young migrant worker. Culled from over 100 hours of a video diary shot by the subject herself, Tai adds another layer to the story by broadcasting Fenfens footage on television monitors in a variety of public contexts like cigarette shops, cafes and beauty salons. The audience in these places, largely made up of migrants like Fenfen, sometimes ignores the broadcasts and at other times becomes engaged in her plight. Observing these audiences experiencing the diaries, the intimate becomes epic and the personal universal as we all share in the loss of Fenfens hopes as her dreams dissolve.

Co-presented with CIUT Radio 89.5 FM