our machines are made of pure sunlight
single-channel film, 23 mins, 2016
three visual narratives weave a story of the body in public and private space––a shaman named icy, a student present at a school shooting and a young woman who left a twelve tribes compound after helping to raise her seven siblings (and putting one to rest).
the title of the work is a line borrowed from donna haraway, where she writes about the ways in which sun rays pierce the body. haraway describes how sunlight is ultimately our "best machine ... all light and clean … nothing but signals, electromagnetic waves … a section of a spectrum."
in an age of constant violence (obscured and overt), how might the body perform as the sun does––a shield and a sword at the same time?
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this work was made possible, in part, thanks to a residency at marble house project