Los Angeles-based Mariah Garnett’s work, primarily film, video and installation, exists somewhere in the intersection between appropriation, documentary, and narrative fiction. She often orbits around a subject rather than directly representing it, employing multiple strategies. Her interest lies less in the end goal of representation and rather its process, which is often fraught with tension, affection, and sometimes, even violence. These tactics are often mirrored by formal gestures, and a project can occupy many different “bodies” including discrete works for exhibition, like photographs, video and intertextual installations. Harpo’s grant will allow Garnett to complete her first feature film, which deals with her own family diaspora, wrought by political conflict, centering on Garnett’s father’s flight as a teenager from Belfast, Northern Ireland, at the beginning of The Troubles.
(Excerpt and images below selected from grant proposal. All works are copyright of the artist.)
-
- Mariah Garnett, “Piderman,” 16mm installation, 60” x 14” x 20” (2012)
-
- Mariah Garnett, “Picaresques,” still from HD video, 20min (2012)
-
- Mariah Garnett, “Signal,” still from 16mm film, 8min (2012)
