Mist - 2003
A collaboration between Max Dean and Kristen Horton
Installation
3 channel video, speakers, projectors, custom software
Dimensions: variable
Edition: 3
Collections: artist (add to cART)
Mist, is a video projection on three screens, arranged in a shallow horseshoe configuration that emulates the physical shape of Niagara Falls. The three screens merge to make one large panorama of water falling. The first shot is a stationary shot of the crestline of Niagara Falls, taken directly above the precipice from which the water spills, tumbling onto the rocks below, generating clouds of mist. The second sequence is a frontal view of the Falls taken at right angles to the Falls, with the top and bottom cropped, displaying only a wall of rushing water.
This second view provides the backdrop and context for the integration of six animated video sequences. Each of the smaller video clips begins with a pair of female hands entering then flow of the water from the top of the screen, moving downward, caressing the water seductively, and eventually grabbing it as if it were a skirt. The six different displays are each undirected performances characterized by varying individual gestures and accoutrements, ranging in style and desire from the matter-of- fact to the steamy seductive.
At the end of each brief expose, the hands suddenly release the aquatic skirt, permitting the water to crash down to the bottom, restoring a comparative sense of reality to the documentary-like depiction of the Falls.
There are six different apparitions. The order of the video sequences of each woman’s appearance is random, creating both anticipation and perhaps frustration as the computer orders the playing of all six clips before reshuffling and re-presenting the six sequences.