Waterfall Confessional (2020)

"Waterfall Confessional begins as a montage of hazy waterfalls captioned with simple statements. The waterfalls are kitsch, in that they have a 'designed for television' profundity. Situated in a public space, like Masons Screen, I imagine the video as a storefront television from a Superman cartoon, the ones Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane, and a crowd of onlookers, gather in front of to see what Superman is doing. In this case, Superman isn’t quite sure what he is doing. Like television news, it is sort of hollow.The text describes a moment of crisis, without providing much detail. These waterfalls transition into a series of spinning objects, of various scales, collected with a rapid, sincere dance beat. Muffled dialogue sporadically intrudes under the footage.

It is a small video, taking inspiration from the humorist Jack Handey, who contributed video spots to Saturday Night Live, and from television drama. It was motivated by recently experiencing tidal waves of doubt: doubting my emotions, doubting my beliefs, and doubting my ability to make sense of anything. The title aligns the work with the dialogue form of 'confession.' This mode derives strength from the obligation it places on individuals to convert unnameable feelings into tangible discourse, and to publicly embrace said discourse."