The work is an interrogation of the perverse pleasure of disaster/ruin, the representation/ function of disaster and desire, and the experience as mediated via film representations. The “Desire” aspect of Disaster & Desire is two-fold: On the one hand it references the way desire is represented in disaster films, and on the other it references a wish/desire for disaster. I have a conflicted view of disaster as I also see it as a positive agent of needed change. For example, the recent Fukushima nuclear disaster prompted the Japanese government to re-evaluate nuclear energy and consequently their last nuclear reactor was shut down. In addition to universal change I also wonder what personal truths would be revealed to me in the event of a disaster in regard to those I love, and even those I wasn’t aware that I loved. And what problems and dysfunctions would it solve?

Irwin Allen’s disaster films employ a similar method of re-uniting and repairing relationships in the wake of catastrophe. Husbands and wives whose relationships seemed broken and beyond repair somehow find hope and come to realizations about their feelings for one another. Strangers who normally would not associate become friends and caregivers. In contemplating the cathartic benefit it has for me, I concede that it is a romantic view of disaster, but one that is nevertheless mediated by film and its enduring power over me. 

Love, loss, desire, rejection, relationships and the spaces they inhabit are themes that I explore in my work. Cinema is a medium that I incorporate directly and indirectly in my practice. Implicit in my work is the notion of romance and love of the cinematic experience. As an artist I am consistently investigating my personal truths and the way they are sometimes informed and shaped by media representations. My work is a reflection of my relationships, whether successful, failed/lost or imagined/desired. In this context my relationship with film and television is a very intimate one that transcends viewing media as entertainment.

The “Out of the Myth” series is comprised of four pieces that explore censorship in film and space. The pieces are united as an examination of cinematic space, and a desire to make Queer space in cinema through recontextualization, extension and other artistic strategies.