A Filth of Dreams sees the ReStacks’ curiosity surrounding the imprint of time, place and social designations of beauty in a site-specific installation involving video and photogram collage. A Filth of Dreams appropriates murmurations - the naturally occurring flight pattern of a group of starlings - to accentuate and contemplate social designations of the aberrant and the unwanted.
Positioned within the frame of the main exterior-facing window of nw9, the video for A Filth of Dreams features a swirling group of starlings - scientifically referred to as a filth - projected onto an antique screen assembled in the alley behind the ReStacks’ home. The twisting and twirling murmuration undulates in shape-shifting patterns and formations as night falls over the period of hours. The mesmerizing movement is in sharp contrast to the mundane setting — garage doors, scattered trash and recycling bins and other alley detritus.
Originating from European nations and categorized as a non-native species in North America, starlings are critically viewed as invasive to American ecosystems and are widely considered as pests. Yet simultaneously, starlings have the ability to coordinate their movements, mimic the human voice, problem solve, and cooperate to an extent unusual in birds. The birds’ movements are preserved through A Filth of Dreams as documentation of animal capacity; subtly posing the question of whether they are merely surviving or thriving amidst our current climate crisis.
The interior walls of nw9 provide a background for another interpretation of landscape and nature - a sprawling installation of 175 photograms, titled Dani can you draw me the books falling. This substantial body of work emerges from a request made by Sheilah of Dani: to draw books with their pages being shaken out. Dani responded by drawing pages of numbers — the very numbers she hears in her head during episodes of mania. Sheilah took the sheets of numbers and used them as component of 16 x 20” darkroom collages. The resulting photographic documents contain Dani’s numbers, marks made by the ReStacks’ three-year-old daughter as she learns to make letters, as well as Sheilah’s journal entries.
Together, these two bodies of work are landscapes of movement, transience, and aberrance. They are interested in making possibility out of what is typically disregarded, or deemed unfit. They suggest the potential beauty that exists between the arbitrary lines of pest and treasure, of madness and clarity. Ultimately, A Filth of Dreams serves as a feminist mirage of the world - one where the reviled or the sick become the door opening into the universe of our everyday.
Link to broadside that excerpts some of the audio accompanying video, as well as a photogram image from Dani can you draw me the books falling?
curated by Alexandra Hecker and with thanks to GAA Gallery and The Blue Building Gallery
