Fracture Line

two channel video & sound installation
17 min. 35 sec. loop
2003

The work comprises six master shots, each depicting a discrete view within a given landscape. These six shots are positioned adjacent to one another in an attempt to expand the field of video by presenting one total landscape through a continuous horizon line. The landscape is further unified by a literal knitting together of the six shots. This event occurs when one of five personas, each portrayed by the artist, walks through all six images, forming a continuous line of white ribbon supported by wooden stakes. As a result, this configuration functions as a type of cinematic expansion by erasing the confines of the frame, in a sense revealing the space beyond the frame’s edge. This expansion is simultaneously complicated by negating the role of the master shot, which traditionally contains all of the action of a scene. Each of the remaining personas performs an action and follows a set of prescribed spatial limitations. This is illustrated through their screen direction and movement between shots or, in some cases, their inability to cross an adjacent frame’s edge, which causes a cinematic rupture. The work sets up five unique systems of movement, suggesting simultaneous relationships between the performed time and the presented time unfolding within the video. Thematically, the piece uses these constructions to explore the fragmentation of subjectivity and femininity within a fictional landscape.

credits:
Director, Camera, Editor, Performer: Julie Orser
Sound: Jon Irving

exhibitions:
Fracture Line, Gallery D300, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA, 2003 *solo exhibition
At Home in the World, Armory Northwest/965, Pasadena, CA, 2026