MAGGIE alexandra SNYDER selected
works
2013
ANIMALS:
the Interviews
Animals: the Interviews is a series of performances of hybrid animal-human creatures. The performances are not viewed live, but as an installation of ephemera. The ephemera includes a handmade Xerox zine of photos and interview text, silent video of the movement performed by the hybrid creatures interviewed and posters of the creatures overlaid with pull-out quotes from their interviews. Performers were invited to my studio where they were invited to select the mask that resonated with them the most. After donning the mask, they performed movement and answered interview questions about their life as a human-aniaml hybrid. Interviews with the hybrid creaiures were filmed as video on a DSLR. The creatures were also photographed with an Instax mini 50s instant camera and an iPhone 4s. Additional still images were taken from the video. Specific Instax images were taken to a copy shop and sized up on a traditional Xerox machine from 2” x 3” to 8.5” x 10”. Those Xeroxes were Xerox copied again to add an extra layer of grain. These 8.5” x 10” double Xeroxed images were then scanned at a very high resolution and printed at 36” x 54” on poster paper. The zine featuring the interviews was assembled from Xeroxed images and cut-up interview text. The entire thing was photocopied into multiple copies, stapled and given away over the course of the installation.
Animal Masks in studio, with Instax mini 50s camera 4
Previous page: Giraffe, performed by Henry Holmes
Instax mini images of the creatures during their interveiews
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Eagle Performed by Mark Bridges Poster, 36” x 54”
Wolf Performed by Tannah Bing Poster, 36” x 54”
Leopard Performed by Lloyd Wang Poster, 36” x 54”
Giraffe Performed by Henry Holmes Poster, 36” x 54”
White Tiger Performed by Joshua Duncan Poster, 36” x 54”
Installation from six viewpoints
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Animals: the Interviews zine. The zine is 32 pages long and 8.5� x 5.5� in size. A color version of the zine, making use of the raw Instax images, is in the works as a companion piece for the video, which will appear as it’s own five-channel installation piece.
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Installation visitors reading Animals: the Interviews zine
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Into
Dust
Video still from Into Dust
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Into Dust is a single channel video piece made on a tabletop set and using the iPhone flashlight app for lighting. The set is comprised of two Melissa & Doug building blocks sets for children, partly buried in several bags’ worth of flour. The original intention for Into Dust was that it would be a companion piece with the video in Flying/Falling. However, no amount of clever editing seemed to make the two pieces fit together effectively. Into Dust was originally presented as an installation. The same blocks from the tablestop set were brought into a space and piled carelessly in a corner. A tiny pico projector was placed in the middle of the blocks and the looping video was projected about four inches from the floor onto the wall. Speakers played Mazzy Star’s song Into Dust on a loop. This piece is about the fall of great civilizations and more specifically about 9/11. The work about 9/11 that followed—Flying/Falling— came directly from conversations around this installation.
Installation detail
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Video still from Into Dust
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Installation view with blocks and Pico projector showing the video
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Advertisement for promoting Flying/Falling Pperformance/installation Open Studio Days Madison, WI
 2013
Flying/Falling is an installation where I performed live remixes of the WNYC eyewitness account radio reports recorded during the 9/11 attacks. The installation consisted of a small looping video of a man running through a park with his arms outstretched like a plane. Behind where I sat manipulating the audio was a 3’ x 12’ black and white photograph of a 2002 performance piece I was involved in, protesting the treatment of Americans and foreigners under the Patriot Act at the time. For the live remix, the WNYC broadcast recordings from 9/11 were run off my iPad directly into Boss DD6 and DD7 delay pedals, which I used to grab small samples of sound to loop and layer. I also ran the audio through an Alesis Metavox vocoder to degrade and add musicality to additional samples. I plugged my Kaossilator synthesizer into an Octave pedal to give it some depth and grit and made low musical accompaniment to the samples that I was processing live.
I Am A Terrorist Poster made from performance still Performance at the University of Colorado Boulder, 2002 Poster dimensions: 3’ x 12’ Material for Flying/Falling Installation 2013
I wanted to work with sound because 9/11 didn’t become real to me until I heard the narratives being broadcast on NPR the day it happened. I like working with analog looping technology because repetition and loops of speech create their own unexpected musical rhythms and phrases that stick easily in the ear of the listener for a while afterwards. This technology also mimics the human brain’s habit of capturing and replaying trauma over and over again until memories degrade into noise and echoes of feelings are still painful even though the specific words have been lost. The elements of this installation/performance served as a jumping off point for conversations about how this country has struggled to process 9/11 culturally and emotionally, resulting in a lost decade. I discussed with people my concerns about censorship and war surrounding this particular event and people shared memories, thoughts and ideas about the event, the past decade and current politics in this country. 22
Opposite: Flying/Falling installation view from visitor’s bench Below: installation detail of audio effects pedals used for live remixing of the archived 9/11 radio news reports
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Video stills from the single-channel video Flying/Falling
What does home look like?
Children participating in the creation of the installation Previous: Jay Ludden holds the finished installation materials while a collaborator looks on
What Does Home Look Like? was a temporary installation created for the Madison Children’s Museum. Artist Jay Ludden, myself and visitors of the museum ages 1-14 collaborated on the installation for three hours during the Fall Arts Weekend hosted by the museum. For the duration of our Fall Arts Weekend slot, we occupied a table at the top of the stairs and we asked children interested in participating to write their name and age on a card with a “Hello my name is” sticker on one side. We then asked them to flip their cards over and write or draw what home looks like or means to them. Once they were finished with their writing or drawing, we helped them attach their cards with paperclips to sheer white ribbon tied to helium-filled 32” gold star mylar balloons. 24
Five balloons total, with cards attached, made up the installation that hung in the art space of the Madison Children’s Museum. The installation existed until the balloons began to deflate. When I went to pick up the balloon remnants and cards, I was pleased to see that children had continued to add to the installation their thoughts about what home looks like to them. We were also pleased that the responses were positive and referenced fun, love and my favorite: “home is avrefing” (everything).
Installation in the Art Room at the Madison Childrens Museum
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Detail of card “Avrefing� (Everything) Opposite: installation detail of cards on ribbons
All content copyright 2013 All photographs by Maggie A. Snyder Published by Holdfast Creative holdfastcreative.net holdfastcreative@gmail.com