Unity Island (2023)

2023, 3-channel 16mm film to digital projection, 13:30 loop, stereo sound, dimensions variable

Unity Island is a personal landscape study of a ¼ mile stretch of land between Niagara River and Black Rock Canal at the border of Buffalo, NY and Fort Erie, Ontario. A railroad crosses the island from Canada to the US passing by a park visited by picnickers, bicyclists, and fishermen. Freight trains cross the canal lock via a swing bridge which rotates open for boats and the occasional freight ship. The 19th century infrastructure of railroad and swing bridge and the placid public park belie the island’s past as a garbage dump for the city of Buffalo. A hill, from which you can get a 360° view of the island, the city, the river, and the highway, is located on the former site of the incineration plant. I've been taking my dog, Augie, for walks there for years. Time frames overlap and his in-the-moment wanderings act as a guide. Shot on 16mm film, Unity Island is designed as a three-screen video installation that examines over time the site’s beauty and contradictions, as well as how stationary and moving images speak to each other as a meditation on memory and place.

Technical requirements:
3 x 1920 x 1080 projectors (or better)
3 x synch-able USB media players
Stereo audio speakers

Also available as in a composited single-channel version.

Press
Catalog essay by Buffalo Arts Studio Director of Visual Arts Shirley Verrico (pdf).
Review in the University at Buffalo Spectrum newspaper (website) | (pdf)
Brief artist talk and thank you at the opening (youtube).
A “visual highlight” of the BAS opening created by Aitina Fareed-Cooke and Get Fokus’d Productions (Creative Media Arts Company) (youtube).
Press release (pdf).

Buffalo Arts Studio exhibition credits: Many thanks to Buffalo Arts Studio Director of Visual Arts, Shirley Verrico, and BAS’s staff including Alma Carillo, Lauren McLaughlin, Sydney O’Shei, and Aitina Fareed-Cooke. Special thanks to Gareth Lichty for the install. Additional thanks to Yola Monakhov Stockton and Bob Collignon at the Buffalo State University Art & Design Department for their technical support with film development; and to the University at Buffalo Department of Media Study for additional resource support. Unity Island was also made possible with a 2023 “Support for Artists” grant by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional help: Dorothea Braemer and Greta Lee (sound recording); Solon Morse for a flora and fauna tour of the island.