Video

Family Re-semblance

Robert Lendrum

2008, colour/B&W

TAPECODE 326.01

Cultural theorist Annette Kuhn discusses family photographs as not simply records of memories but as contingent in the construction of memories. She calls the photo, a prompt from which competing narratives and meanings spring – the photographer, the subject and the archivist together co-author the meaning of the snapshot. Family Re-semblance (2006-8�) explores these ideas through the act of mimicking family photography on video. Family Re-semblance is a multi-channel video installation where a series of small LCD screens play video reconstructions of actual family photographs. The videos are long-take duration performances in which each actor must perform stillness. They are then seamlessly looped and played through small screens disguised with typical photo frames. In each image, I take on the identity of one of my family members - a family riddled with divorce. The videos take on an eerie quality that is zombie-like; an apt metaphor for re-animated past moments.�

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