DAWN OF A NEW DAY

Work in progress
Installation:
Film
Four collages
Miniature model


Looped video.

Dawn of a New Day is an installation consisting of film sequences, a series of collages and a miniature model, all relating to the ”The Sunworshippers’ Colony”, which was exhibited in the amuzement zone of the New York World Fair 1939-40. The Sun Worshippers’ Colony was an enclosure with grass, trees, domestic animals and half-naked women. The film sequences, featuring four of the girls in the enclosure, are extracts from a 6 hour long amateur colour film shot in and for the Fair. The sequences are put together with no will of editing or hierarchy, and only show the raw film material, except that the focus is solely on four of the girls exhibited in the enclosure.

Test collage.

The collages with the title Gestures Unfold 1-2-3-4 are studies of the gestures and the body language of the women within the chosen sequence and context. I am taking out still images from each frame of the film footage, printing them, cutting out the body of the protagonist, and then re-arranging them into a circular form on paper, creating an ornamental effect.

Detail of miniature model in process.

The miniature model is an attempt to create a three-dimensional fact-based fiction. The aim is to understand the actual three-dimensional reality of the source material, the film sequences showing half-naked woman exhibited in a zoo-like enclosure at the World Fair.

See REFERENCES for more information about The Sunworshippers colony and the New York World Fair 1939-40.