On Tuesday in my Intro to Queer Studies class at Tufts, D'hana Perry, a Boston-based media artist, talked to us about his/her art practice and gave a performance. D'hana didn't tell us his/her pronoun preferences, and I didn't ask -so I'll use both just to reinforce his/her gender-nonconformity/queer identity (s/he did identify as those things).
S/he mixes sounds (music, interviews, other sounds) with found footage and his/her own footage of interviews conducted with gender-non-conforming people of color to perform remixed versions of his/her experimental documentary, "Loose". S/he has a computer program that allows him/her to queue clips of sound and image and arrange them live to make a new video each time. The form of the documentary performance contains the possibility for so many different versions. The form of the piece adds to the meaning of its content. This documentary describes the complex interlacing of race with gender and sexual identities.
Because we just talked more about editing in class yesterday, D'hana's video/performance work is relevant and interesting. S/he already has her clips cut and puts them together in different ways every time she performs the piece. It creates new relationships between clips and the interviews and a way that I think helps stretch the viewer's understanding of being queer and of color.
D'hana's video clips sometimes have two layers of images -a recurring layer over an interview subject is a tv screen test pattern. Sometimes there are layers of text. D'hana also uses repetitions in the interviews sound component. During the performance, sometimes I got lost in the images, music, and the dreamy repetition of speaking voices. I think my experience of the documentary shows that it breaks down a typical documentary narrative. D'hana talked about this type of narrative in which the minority "other" that is studied in the film is praised for struggling against all odds and succeeding in assimilating enough into American culture to be productive, respected citizens. Loose is critical of that oversimplified narrative, which does not represent the subject's actual experiences.
D'hana made the soundtrack her/himself, which is mostly electronic music (over which s/he layers other sounds). A big part of D'hana's work is its connection to the practice of DJing and making remixes. Her/his video work is a live remix of interviewee's narratives, perhaps suggesting that the work is a reflection of his/her own story. S/he does say that the documentary is autobiographical, even though the video included none of her/his voice or face.
I think it's really cool that the version I saw in class has completely different combinations in her video remixing than in this recording of a live performance (now on youtube). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OIRifwOTaM&list=UUeT-5YNlw3Q7MTPkMD0llkw&index=1&feature=plcp
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