un arbre
(2024, 14:00, 16mm x 5 + HD video)
"un arbre" grew out of work a group of my neighbors and I did to attempt to save three centuries-old trees that were targeted for removal to make way for a luxury apartment building. The film opens with a 4-projector 16mm loop-based section that first nods to Ferdinand de Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics—the tree that served as the foundation for his theory of signification—before moving into a study of a 200-year-old sycamore tree, one of the trees targeted for removal. The second section is set in the aftermath of that removal, exploring the vacant lot where that tree once stood, while a voiceover by a local oral historian recounts the incredible history that the felled sycamore witnessed during its lifespan in our neighborhood.
