Film: Sugar (Currently Untitled)

This art project is a work in progress. This film (which I have not yet titled) is part of an art series that deals with African American women’s (including myself) addictions to Food, Pills, Sex, Cosmetics, Reality TV, Social Media, and Cosmetic Surgery. This film will focus on food addictions; hence the intake of sugar.

In take one (video clip on the right), I did not pour the sugar directly into my mouth. Instead, I had it poured beside my mouth, giving it an illusion that the sugar was being poured into my mouth. In take two (video clip on the left), I needed to stuff cotton balls in my noise and place a mouth guard in my mouth to prevent sugar from falling inside so I could breath. Because of this preparation, it helped me get into character for the film; suffering because of the difficulty of breathing, the body position to a point of being uncomfortable; but, at the same time being submissive and helpless and wanting to consume.

Bill Viola, an experimental film artist, uses slow motion effects, and sometimes reverses the film that leaves the viewer in a trippy-dreamy state of mind. And the more times I look at his films the more meaning/clarity I find in the art itself…

http://www.billviola.com/