Through archival research and personal reflection, this piece explores the intertwined erasure and recovery of reproductive realities in cinema. It begins with the 1934 enforcement of the Hays Code's ban on depictions of childbirth and abortion, then looks back to two earlier works by women directors that I recover: a 1931 documentary about Appalachian midwives and a 1906 short about pregnancy cravings and a public childbirth. Together, these films reveal early cinematic expressions of reproductive agency. The video interweaves them with an interview in which my mother speaks directly to the camera about her illegal abortion before Roe v. Wade, asking what reproductive care and bodily autonomy might look like for future generations.
Watch here.
Photo: Robert Wedemeyer
This video was commissioned by West Hollywood's Moving Image Media Art Program. Featuring films by pioneering directors Alice Guy-Blaché, Marion E. Wong, and Lotte Reiniger, the work brings attention to early women filmmakers whose contributions have long been overlooked. I created the piece for a 50-foot digital billboard on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, transforming a prominent site typically reserved for commercial film advertising into a platform for public engagement with feminist film history.
On view at 9157 Sunset Boulevard Los Angeles, CA from October 1, 2022 - January 31, 2023.
Photo: Ian Byers-Gamber.
Collection: Toledo Museum of Art, OH
Watch here.
This video was commissioned by West Hollywood's Moving Image Media Art Program. Featuring films by pioneering directors Alice Guy-Blaché, Marion E. Wong, and Lotte Reiniger, the work brings attention to early women filmmakers whose contributions have long been overlooked. I created the piece for a 50-foot digital billboard on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, transforming a prominent site typically reserved for commercial film advertising into a platform for public engagement with feminist film history.
On view at 9157 Sunset Boulevard Los Angeles, CA from October 1, 2022 - January 31, 2023.
Photo: Ian Byers-Gamber.
Collection: Toledo Museum of Art, OH
Watch here.
This video quilt began as Alice Guy-Blaché's pioneering 1897 film of Loie Fuller's Serpentine Dance, as performed by Mrs. Bob Walter. I digitally painted each frame, then pieced the footage into a quilt using Adobe Premiere Pro.
Film footage courtesy of Gaumont Pathé Archives.
Photo: Ian Byers-Gamber.
Exhibited at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery; Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles; Abattoir Gallery, OH, and the International Center for the Arts, Monte Castello di Vibio, Italy.
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Video installation commissioned by LACMA. On view at Screens at Stark Bar @ LACMA in 2020 and 2022. Watch here.
The piece was made from existing films, including Lotte Reiniger's 1922 "Cinderella," and Pat Ferrero's 1981 "Hearts and Hands" and 1988 "Quilts in Women's Lives," both in distribution by New Day Films.
Photo: Ian Byers-Gamber
Video installation commissioned by LACMA. On view at Screens at Stark Bar @ LACMA in 2020 and 2022. Watch here.
The piece was made from existing films, including Lotte Reiniger's 1922 "Cinderella," and Pat Ferrero's 1981 "Hearts and Hands" and 1988 "Quilts in Women's Lives," both in distribution by New Day Films.
The video connects film editing to quilt-making, and challenges how the classifications of quilter and artist have been segregated from one another by art historians. Merging these different forms of artistry in the same space is a reparative act.
Photo: Ian Byers-Gamber
Exhibited at LACMA and the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA.
Collection: LACMA. Shown here at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, during the 2021 exhibition “Crafting America.”
Watch here.
Collection: LACMA.
Collection: LACMA