LINDA DUVALL Visual and Media Artist
REINVENTED 2005
Reinvented is a video-based project focused on the subject of lying, through the presentation of an assemblage of intimate narratives. The subject matter of reinvention is approached, not through disguises or physical alteration, but rather through direct verbal articulation in front of a video camera. Each of the short stories that I provided consisted of an occasion for possible transformation or shift in direction or attitude.
I met directly with each participant and told them one at a time a series
of very short stories, such as “When my mother recently became ill,
she told me something that she had kept secret all these years. My biological
father is not the person I had assumed, and also he is of another race”
I asked them to tell each story back to me in the first person. As they
did this, I asked them more details about the situation. For example,
in the above example, I then asked various details about the situation.
“So what race is he?” Have you tried to contact him? Why do
you think your mother kept this secret for all these years? ” Through
this process, the original story then becomes more theirs than mine, as
they acknowledge how this situation might play out in their personal context.
The questions gradually reveal attitudes and biases.
I have presented this project in three Canadian cities so far. In each
case, I met with a broad demographic of local residents, ranging from
high-profile MLA’s to residents of shelters who had never been part
of an art project or even in a gallery before. The nature of the reinventions
reflects both individual experience and community frameworks within each
location.