Installation view: The Life Cycle of Celestial Objects Parts I & II. McIntosh Gallery, Western University, London, ON. Curated by Helen Gregory.
Video installation in a converted funeral home, Labspace Studio's Recollection Project
(Aug 19-21, 2011).
Scrapbook: The History of Exploration
August 2011, September 2023
Collaboration with writer Nancy Jo Cullen
Reimagined in 2023 as a sculptural installation. Materials: Found and altered vintage school desk, vintage TV-antenna, colour monitor, chair.
Exhibitied in 2023 as part of The Life Cycle of Celestial Objects Parts I & II. McIntosh Gallery, Western University, London, ON. Curated by Helen Gregory.
“Scrapbook: The History of Exploration” is published in the poetry collection, Nothing Will Save Your Life, by Nancy Jo Cullen and published by Wolsak and Wynn in 2022.
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2011 Statement: An experimental short video ( 9 minutes) based on two found scrapbooks that we had photographed onto microfilm.
Two scrapbooks, a found treasure and archive of the first manned lunar landing in 1969 are the impetus behind our short film Scraps, a dialogue between the unknown archivist who assembled the scrapbooks in 1969 and us, a young visual artist and a middle aged writer in living and working in 2011.
Technical obsolescence serves as the backdrop through which we explore the abandoned scrapbooks, the mysterious archivist and the passing of mediums such as newsprint and microfilm. The ephemeral nature of the microfilm images flitting by—some blurred while others are brought into focus—parallels the processes of memory and recollection and allows us to explore a particularly rich moment in history that has attained a mythical status.
Nurielle Stern and Nancy Jo Cullen, August, 2011
Created with the generous support of the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto