[clips]
Rain, Cloud, and WeWalk are three clips in a pandemic video series. They were recorded in 2020 in New York City to redirect our collective attention towards nature and the great outdoors. In Central Park the trees, greenery, and birds were dependable…
The three iphone videos document an experiment in pause and repeat, slowing down, parasympathetic nerves calmed by the sounds of rain, distant voices, quiet stimuli, and the sound of feet walking …
In Rain, droplets hit the Sailboat Pond, the sound of voices is faint, and the birds drawn us in. In Cloud white puffy cumulus and blue sky are reflected on water against distant chatter. In WeWalk a human hand is the subject. An individual walks in an unknown direction, we pay attention to the sounds of footsteps, the leaves on the trees, and one word “Bonjour” (“Hello” in French) captures our attention.
The three videos are a look at what remains when the present changes and the future is a question mark.
Rain, Cloud, and WeWalk accompany You Will Never Beat New York a short film by Roberta Fineberg.
Rain (2020)
Video, 1 min 8 seconds
Rain, Summer 2020. Raindrops rhythmically fall on the rippled surface of an urban pond and creates new patterns, new designs. My iphone camera pans the pond and records the sound of the rain hitting the surface. Black-and-white pixels register abstraction. A city on pause, familiar locations in silence. What becomes of memories? Where do they go?
Cloud (2020)
Video, 23 seconds
During the pandemic, New York City was laid bare and its natural beauty revealed, its greenery, gardens, trees, and birds perched on trees outside apartment windows. The air was clean, and the sunlight bright. Nature in the urban space, an opportunity to look within, paying attention is a superpower, a meditation, on a single perfect cloud.
WeWalk (2020)
Video, 3 min 5 seconds
Walking hours a day during a period of confinement, I shot WeWalk a 3-minute 5-second iphone video capturing the rhythm of movement and stream of consciousness. Shot from below, the subjects’s fingers clasp a colourful bag swinging, birds sing, sirens sound, traffic is apparent, passersby voices present, and the walk gives strength. The subject in the video walks nul part though because there is nowhere urgent to go.