A horizontal line makes a stable image, 66 seconds, 2007
After my grandfather passed away, I inherited 70 years of family films shot on
8mm film. While viewing them, I realized that the moments recorded over 70
years, became memories, for me, of my mother's childhood and family without
my being there, or her being there, to contextualize them. This video is an
attempt to understand the passing of time and to visualize the energy or the
shape my family's recorded history.
In a horizontal line makes a stable image, I digitized, edited family 8 mm films
and layered these clips into 42 overlapping layers so I could visualize the arc
and energy of her life in 66 seconds. As a memorial to my mother I created the
sound of the final 66 seconds of a piano piece she played often at my request.
Each note is edited into an arc where the first note would play forward and then
would repeat in reverse. The destabilization and destruction of the shape of a
family after the death of a loved one happens over time and continually reforms like the memories of them.
This was a part of "Finding Family"; curated by Karen Gillenwater, 21c Museum,
Louisville, KY & Mount Sterling, KY's Gateway Regional Art Center
 
Bio:
Valerie Sullivan Fuchs is an artist who visualizes the illusive invisible energy of
life and the land she encounters everyday. She works to mirror nature’s fluidity
and acclamation of time, in digitally based videos, photography, installations and emulates nature’s self-sustainable energy by integrating solar power and
hydroelectricity into artworks.