Aliyah Winter

Eli Jenkins' Prayer (2016)

2 min 16 secSingle channel / Digital Video / Colour / Sound

Eli Jenkins' Prayer shows a figure framed from the chest upwards, whose face is covered thickly in gold leaf. They wear a black domed hat and mimes in time to the solemn music. Recorded on VHS, the image is grainy and the black surrounding the singer is textured, in a similar way to the quality of the audio, which is taken from cassette tapes.

"The material from this work is lifted from a personal archive of musical recordings of the artist’s late grandfather, who was a prolific tenor. This work plays with a form of “drag”, both visually and temporally, to embody the existence and continuity of queerness through time and space."

Artist's statement

Other works by Aliyah Winter

CIRCUIT is the
leading voice
for artist moving image
practice
in Aotearoa New Zealand,
distributing works,
critical review and
dialogues
which reflect our unique, contemporary
South Pacific context.