Babelgum: High Rise
High Rise is part of a four-channel video work that considers the aspirational character of the life-and-death cycles of the city. Shot and assembled over a period of a year and a half, this 'chapter' examines the infinite vertical horizon of modernism through images of architecture along the newly developed Williamsburg waterfront.
The original video is intended to play on a vertically-rotated screen and fills a regular video frame horizontally. It is presented here for preview purposes rotated and scaled 90 degrees for proper viewing.
I am submitting this excerpt because the visual of the scrolling architecture would be very compelling among the Times Square high-rises. The climactic ascent is inspired from a line taken from Jean Beaudrillard's notes on America: "The influence of the stars descends directly from the constellations in the purity of the air."
METROPOLIS ART PRIZE ENTRY 2009
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