print   back We 4 :00, 1990 "Even as the text instructs us otherwise, it is impossible not to read We's two images - that is, to respond to their symbolic quality, their suggestiveness. In a stream of associations, the rhythmic flow of people on the left becomes an ejaculation while the rhythmic hand on the right marks detachment, self-centeredness. Simultaneously, we may say to ourselves, "Yes, it is only a crowd of anonymous people. It is only a penis." But even as we attempt to discipline our interpretative urges, the hermeneutic created by this simple juxtaposition is driving us crazy with questions: Who is he? Why is he alone? Does he have a lover...? Does everyone in this crowd masturbate? Do they seek isolation from the mass? Are they aware of one another? Are they relational in less-populated situations? Why was this private image made public? Why is this image private...? Chris Straayer, Deviant Eyes, Deviant Bodies, Sexual Orientation in Film and Video, Columbia University Press, 1996 A short, graphically dynamic work contrasting contradictory views of perception and interpretation, by way of society's assumptions vis a vis phallocentrism and fetishism. shot & edited by Shelly Silver text Correction, Thomas Bernhard music Floating Pad, Henry Mancini select screenings & exhibitions I, A Member, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Flesh Histories, The Kitchen, NYC; Video Gallery Scan, Tokyo, Japan; ; Within & Beyond Confinement, Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria; Cologne Kunstverein, Germany; ZKM, Karlsruhe, Sexual Visionaries, Konst Ig, Stockholm, Sweden; Man Trouble, Exit Art, NYC; The Museum of Modern Art, NYC; St. Gervais Video Festival, Geneva, Switzerland; San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival; Body Language, Artists Space, NYC; Australia International Video Festival page top