Medusa Smack
2012
two channel video installation, spandex, fiberglass, steel, fake fur, canvas, carpet
"What we see before us is just one tiny part of the world. We get into the habit of thinking, this is the world, but that's not true at all. The real world is a much darker and deeper place than this, and much of it is occupied by jellyfish and things."
Haruki Murakami
synopsis:
Medusa Smack reminds us of our long ago origins as sea organisms, and invites installation visitors to return the sea floor and float among our cousins. A lovely diaphanous tent in jellyfish shape is suspended above large soft pillows, upon which one can recline and view the dreamy images of a smack, or group, of moon jellies and sea nettles drifting above. This video installation features a score composed and performed by Tara Jane O’Neil. The score was partially comprised with sounds recorded by the late Harry Bertoia on his own Sonambient sound sculptures, as well as a recording Tara made of 17th-century scholar and polymath Athanasius Kircher’s Bell Wheel at the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles. Thanks to Val Bertoia and David Wilson, respectively, for permissions granted.
credits:
score composed and performed by Tara Jane ONeil
cinematography: Eric Edwards and Vanessa Renwick
edit: Vanessa Renwick
online edit: Tim Scotten
senior aquarist at the Oregon Coast Aquarium,
gaffer and jellyfish fluffer: Evonne Mochon-Collura
Medusa screen: Philip Cooper with help from Dana Dart-McClean
Sea grass pillows: Natalie Barela
The Sandy Sea Bottom: Nick Storie
Installation Production Supervisor- Tomas Valladares
production assistance: Corey Arnold, Mike Cobb, and Kendall Core
Video Mapping: Tyler Centanni
Drape Saint: T.C. Smith
made possible in part with a grant from The Regional Arts and Culture Council
Many thanks to the Oregon Coast Aquarium for permission to film the Aurelia (Moon jellies) and the Chrysaora fuscescens (Pacific Sea Nettles) in their care. Special thanks to senior aquarist Evonne Mochon-Collura
premiere:
2012 Oregon Biennial. It has also screened at The Centre Pompidou-Paris and Centre Pompidou- Metz late April 2012 with Tara Jane ONeil doing a live score for it. More projections at Other Cinema, San Francisco, Unknown Music Series #1 in Anacortes, WA., Northwest Film Forum in Seattle, Wa. , The Houston Cinema Arts Festival and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum in Eugene, Oregon.
The Medusa Smack is in the collection of The Jordan Schnitzer Museum.