Extra Credit: Naomi Fisher

I went to the University Gallery last Saturday to view the Naomi Fisher "Lay of the Land" exhibit. While I was there I saw the artist recording a performance. I looked at her work and after I was done I talked to her about her work. My favorite work was her videos. She had two, one was called "ASHES" and the other was called "ASHES - Hands." In the video "ASHES" she went to the Everglades with scientist to record a deep message. It is about how we burn down the trees and plants just so new ones will grow. She says she wants the viewer to relate this to their own life from the way we have to go through "a lot of shit just to grow and learn." She shows this message by showing a women who is dressed in very natural clothing throwing around dirt and embracing it in an angry manner. The movie "ASHES - Hands" was on a smaller screen but it was shown right next to "ASHES." "ASHES - Hands" showed a close up of hands letting dirt fall through in a repeating loop manner. She said she used this technique so that the viewer would almost be "hypnotized into" the video. I told her we were working on a sound project in our class and I asked her how did she decide on what sound she would use. She told me she wanted "simple nature sounds." She also told me that all the sounds in the video were not the real sounds. She said that a airplane flew over as they were recording and also a lot of times the wind blew too hard. So they had to use sounds from previous shootings of nature. She said it was all "natural and fake." I think the sounds worked great with her video. The were subtle but it also gave you the true illusion of being in Everglades. All around the exhibitions were photos and "ethnographic" indian objects from museums. This helped play with the idea of "past and present" which surrounds the idea of rebirth. The photos were very large in size so that the nature feel took over. Overall I really enjoyed her work and I loved the deep message behind it, I can definitely relate. The artist was very nice and she was excited to answer my questions. She also wished us luck with our sound project.