The Big Reveal
2022
Looping video 2 mins 24 secs, food dye on 16mm black & white film, four inkjet prints, linen curtain, and wooden stool
Size dependent upon installation space
The Big Reveal (2022) continues my exploration into filmic representations of women and non-binary folks’ sexualities through a photography and video installation piece. Studying the history of moving image strip teases, I play with the viewer’s expectations of a striptease reveal. I enshroud the anticipated bare skin in bright semi-opaque colours, creating body-shaped, flickering paintings. By subverting this expectation, the work avoids hyper-sexualization or pathologization of the bodies, and instead imagines a precious and dazzling vision of sexuality.
Originally shot on black and white 16mm film, the celluloid was then hand-developed in the darkroom and the individual frame-by-frame hand-painted using coloured food dye. This rigorous process echos the film colouring techniques practiced during the 1890s - 1920s (which was primarily executed by women), and involved painting nearly 2000 individual frames.
2022 “Watching You Watching Me”, Cineworks Independent Filmmakers Society, Vancouver, Canada
2022 “Photo Show & Film Screening at WAVE”, curated by Rainbow Tunnel Films, Wave Collective Space, San Francisco, USA
2022 “BFA Graduating Exhibition 2022: Collecting Plum Blossoms”, Audain Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Special thanks to Sena Cleave, Debbie C., and Vitória Monteiro for their participation in this project.