MFA Thesis Projects

Abigail Hendrix, Nimueh, 2023 (still, 16 mm HD video, color, stereo, 3-channel, synchronous loop).

Media Art Gallery

April 19- May 14, 2023.

Reception, April 19, 5-7pm

A two person exhibition, this year’s MFA thesis showcase features multi channel moving image works by Elise Cohen and Abigail Hendrix.

Elise Cohen, Call Home, 16 mm film, 2023

Cohen’s 16mm film Call Home is a mixed-media installation work. The project features home movies filmed on 8mm by the artist’s grandfather from the 50’s through the late 70’s during their time in Morocco and when they moved to France. More recent recordings of conversations between the artists and her grandmother are also included. The project explores themes of transmission, memories, and alienation.

Hendrix’s three channel installation Nimueh is made using digitally scanned 16mm film and a multi-layered soundscape. It explores the local folklore and mythology surrounding the death of Hallie Latham Illingworth, whose intact body was found floating in Washington state’s Lake Crescent in 1937 about four years after her death, eerily preserved (saponified) by the frigid water. Nimueh (named for the Arthurian Lady of the Lake) uses local imagery, voiceover, and text to engage with the landscape of and around Lake Crescent and with Hallie’s transformation: from human body to soap, from human being to myth.