Tara Laughlin
That's My Girl
Kat Vivaldi
Spinning with Pixels
That's My Girl
These paintings are dedicated to all of the girls
who stand in the direct path of a battery of criticism.
To the girls who fix their lipstick in between meetings and who submerge themselves in a lonely industry.
This is dedicated to the girls who want to know if we have begun to arrive on time.
To the girls who didn’t manage to devote their nights to preparing for the next morning.
Phenomenal women who aren’t afraid to stand in the sun and tell us that every day we can rise and stand with them.
My work is meant to inspire girls to stand on each other’s shoulders and show them that women are meant to be confident.
The world is ours.
These paintings show the strength and power of women in the face of adversity.
Tara Laughlin, 2019
Spinning with Pixels
Color guard is an extension of the human body. This hybrid of dance incorporating an object |LS|fabric flag on a metal pole|RS|, developed from militaristic origins. I have practiced this visual performative skill for around a decade, and looking to the experiences of mind and body while performing was my starting point for this work.
I want my video practice to acknowledge the embodied flow state of color guard during performances. To explore these connections, I reflected on feelings of wholeness and extension of the body brought by the flag itself. Blending, separating, and morphing the boundaries of the performer to the flag, I created anonymized forms emphasizing the simplified kinetic qualities of the practice.
The digital content began as archival footage of color guard performances spanning the last several decades. Throughout this process, I was aware of the tension between subjective human perspective and the technological objectivity of documentation. By abstracting the imagery, the digital materialization of the video tapes becomes visible, and I further emphasize digital color, kinetics, and video pixel interactions. In abstraction the original subjects (performers with flags) transcend into amalgamations of unrecognizable spinners and endless looping light energies. The installation itself asks the viewer to be present amidst tremulous cacophony of light and color. The original music from the archival footage becomes less important than its rhythmic cueing, leading to a soundscape of droning, disjointed musical signaling.
Overall, the video pieces intend to immerse the viewer into type of fugue state. Like in the flag performances, individual actions join together and become swallowed into the massive whole. I aim to synthesize the physical, visual, and auditory experience of endless practice, loops, and repetition of color guard.
Kat Vivaldi, 2019
