"The New Terrorism", 2006
video / audio Installation
11min 27sec
The "The new terrorism" is an educational kit for American schools from the
1970’s. It consists of a strip of photo slides, a one-sided record, a booklet and
a game. Using examples of current affairs at the time, the kit was used to
teach high school kids about the threat of terrorism.
In my work I recorded the film strip with a video recorder and slowed the
footage so the slide show would match the exact length of the album.
When played simultaneously the two resources do not synchronise. This
de-synchronisation interrupts and suspends the viewer’s reading of the
footage. The meaning of the document escapes its original educational-
and sensational-intention and the process of creating certain historical
narratives becomes evident.
"The déjà vu of Avner Kaufmann", 2006, video
Parallel screening of Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” and Michael Anderson’s
"Sword of Gideon" in B-Books, Berlin 2006.
In his new movie "Munich", currently showing in cinemas across Germany
Steven Spielberg deals with one of the more sensitive issues in the new
Jewish/ Israeli history - the terror attack from the 1972 Olympic Games in
Munich where eleven Israeli athletes were killed by the members of the
Palestinian group, Black September. The story of the movie revolves around
the character of Avner Kaufmann, an Israeli military officer who is personally
recruited to the mossad by then Prime Minister Golda Meir to lead the spy
team who will avenge the terror attack and will kill the terrorist involved in
the attack. Twenty years ago, HBO produced a television movie about the
same historical events. The thriller film, "Sword of Gideon", also focuses on
an Israeli agent named Avner who faces a similar crisis of conscience as
Spielberg’s Avner and is wracked by guilt after helping assassinate
Palestinians believed to be behind the Munich slayings. Both movies are
based on the same 1984 book, "Vengeance", by Canadian author George
Jonas. But there are some scenes in the new movie that are staged very
similarly to those in the older movie. For example, in recreating the bloody
last moments of the Munich crisis, when Palestinians fire on Israeli
Olympians held captive in a helicopter, both movies use the same camera
angle -- from the perspective of the hostages. And both "Sword" and "Munich"
feature a noteworthy scene that doesn’t appear in the book: a shot of a
pensive Avner picking up the tobacco pipe of a fallen team member in a
London hotel room. Remaking movies and directors ripping each other off is
not a new phenomenon in the movie industry. Munich’s case, though, is, to
my opinion, more interesting because of Spielberg’s attempt to show his take
on world terror and his original position as a Zionist Jew while, actually,
making a movie that had already been done and denying even seeing it.
Through the parallel screening, a situation occurs where cinematographic
mechanisms become transparent and new connections emerge. For example,
some scenes in one movie function as a cinematic visualization of a dialogue
in the other. What becomes interesting are the subtle readings that arise
when the two films are screened together, namely, Spielberg’s kitchified
simulacra take on the representation of terror. This results in a kind of
"déjà vu" that underlines society’s tendency to emotionally frame ideas
of terror and justice. Munich’s introductory claim, that it is "inspired by
real events", situates the idea of "déjà vu" within the context that the two
movies share.
Keep it real
3 videos project, 2005
The works document three young rappers who are trying to achieve success
in the hip hop industry. In the videos, Nymesis, Blind Fury and P-Star tell
their stories, present their agendas, talk about the way they are trying to
position themselves in the hip hop game and demonstrate their artistic
skills.
Nymesis
video
11min 38sec
Nemesis is 19 years old and lives in Harlem NY. He goes daily to the street
corner in 125th and St Nicholas Ave. where he and his friends sell cigarettes
in the black market for a living. He Battle Raps occasionally with the
bypassers who dare to battle him.
Keep it real
3 videos project, 2005
Stephen Norris a.k.a Blind Fury
video
11min
Stephan is 21 years old. He was born blind, grew up in Camden, South
Carolina. He has rhymed since he was 9. A few years ago he started to rap
and battle in the local club scene where he met his friend DJ Mellow.
Mellow contacted his friends DJ spice & Darrell Jones from NY, They
believed in Fury’s potential and decided to produce him under their
production company 3 wise men.
Blind Fury made the finals on MTV’s "mc battle" award and came in the
third of the top five in the country, he is performing nation wide and is
currently working on his first E.P.,
