MUMBLES IN THE DARK
4 Channel Video Installation.
2022
Frontal View of “Mumbles in the Dark”
“Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?”
Mumbles In the Dark is a video installation pairing poetry with visuals and special effects that elicit science fiction, confederate iconography, and religious symbolism. With video projected onto a suspended 4 sided monolith, the installation is a visual exploration of distortion. Imagery of figures wearing items that distort the view if their bodies are woven between practical and digital effects simulating the distortions of chrome and glass surfaces.
With the installation being on display at the Alabama Contemporary Art Center, the installation also makes reference to the state’s confederate past, my perspective as an artist from the state, and the warping of history to obfuscate that past. Utilizing excerpts from the poem “Let America be America Again” by Langston Hughes, the installation pointedly references America’s failings in living up to its written ideals. The collection of imagery works to make an alien and surreal experience out of the raw materials of growing up in the modern south.