Landfill 162011

"Exhumed 16mm film from my very own landfill in Elkhart, Indiana constitute the canvas of Landfill 16. After finishing my double-projection When It Was Blue I was horrified by the bulk of outtakes that would normally go to a landfill. So I temporarily buried the footage to let enzymes and fungi in the soil begin to decompose the image, and then I hand-painted the film to give it new life. This "recycling" is a meditation on the demise of the beautiful 16mm medium and nature's losing battle to decompose the relics of our abandoned technologies and productions.

The ominous soundtrack mixes recognizable audio, from bulldozers to nature audio, with more abstracted textural and rhythmic sounds I created using audio from consumer-goods factories, old 16mm equipment, the cries of a dying bird stuck in my wall, and other oddities. Within this multi-textured, pulsating, abstract moving painting I attempt to express my dread of man-made waste that endangers land and wildlife." -Jennifer Reeves