PROJECTS
ARTIST ATTEMPTS AUTOMATIC DREAM READING(November 10, 2012) Recess Activities organized an evening of performances and interventions at the Museum of Modern Art as part of a PopRally event. For my contribution, visitors were invited to have one-on-one dream interpretations with me among surrealist works on the 5th floor. Though I lack training and much in the way of experience, I was irrationally confident in my abilities, and my powers may have been enhanced by my advanced pregnant state ( probably not). As promised the results were uneven, absurd, and periodically insightful. Click here to see an exquisite corpse video of the dreams I heard. |
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UNNAMED BROADWAY MUSICAL: THE MUSICAL!(April 14-May 19, 2012) Last spring I organized a defiantly optimistic, barebones, experimentally cast production that uses an orphan-themed Broadway musical, we were advised not to name (hereafter referred to as “[unnamed Broadway musical]”), as its point of departure. Denied the right to perform any of the original material in the gallery, the group, under the direction of Sarah Cameron Sunde, had the absurd task, that is, the creative challenge of generating a production that managed to fulfill the eight performers’ sincere desire to be in [unnamed Broadway musical] without them actually being in [unnamed Broadway musical]. I documented the entire processand am currently editing a video to be released next spring. Click for more information. |
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TREMENDOUS(2010, trt: 1 hr 14 min) Organized around the principle of a tidal wave, the content of this video was shot with the participation of more than 170 visitors during a three-month residency at Recess Activities, Inc., a unique artist program/ gallery space in Manhattan. I built seven minimalist gray-scale sets inside the storefront space and invited visitors into conversation with the use of an intake form. The resulting video is a complex but cohesive experimental narrative about the experience of being overwhelmed. It is made up of interviews, reenactments, and performances conceived of in collaboration with visitors. Click to watch. |
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CLEAR EYES, FULL HEARTS(2011) All the hugs from Friday Night Lights, Season One. Click to see. 
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WEIGHT OF THE WORLD(2006-2009) |
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THE NEED FOR GRAND EMOTION(2009, trt: 30 min 22 sec) In this series of staged dramas, 30-year old Will inexplicably finds himself back in high school trying to win the approval of a group of girls. In scenarios ranging from mundane and pathetic to violent and absurd, the character and the video work together self-consciously to squeeze authentic experience and emotion from the most artificial of circumstances. Click to watch. |
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THE TEMPORARY AND HEROIC TRANSCENDENCE OF ONE'S FATE(2008, trt: 24 min 44 sec) Mario Cuellar plays the artist and sometimes himself in this series of staged dramas. This disruption of gender and identity is paired with an examination of the various techniques one uses to grapple with and transcend mortality in the midst of daily life. Click to watch. |
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A PROBLEM OF COURAGE(2008) An installation at DiverseWorks in Houston, Texas that included the video One Thing After Another with other videos, photos, and other objects. Read the accompanying writing for the show. |
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ONE THING AFTER ANOTHER(2007, trt: 27 min 41 sec) This video takes a look at the way travesties large and small hang about; the way regret, grief, humiliation, and tension play themselves out after the fact, shifting in and out of consciousness, repeating endlessly, and being re-made along the way. It was shot completely alone by the artist using only costumes and props that were on hand. Click to watch. |
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REINCARNATED SCENES(2005-06) video These reenactments are my effort to degrade and venerate the heroics of Hollywood movies. By utilizing the techniques of cinema in the simplest possible ways I hope to recreate narratives that are stripped of everything but the pathos inherent in the medium. Click to watch. |
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