Moving through West Texas by train, a meditative visual experience is altered by accounts of violence in historical El Paso and contemporary Juarez. Installed for the East Austin Studio Tour November 21-22 at Eddy-on-Haskell.
title: El Paso Redux medium: single channel video with audio 14 min 18 sec release date: 2009
I'm in a farmyard, surrounded by cows, white dogs that look like huskies. Whooping cranes are in the air. The farmer is shooting them. As each falls among the cattle, he chants "That's a one kill." "That's a two kill." "That's a three kill." "That's a four kill."
He walks among the cattle, retrieves the dead birds, throws them in a heap. The dogs lie on top of them, waiting, smelling the warm dead bodies.
The dog's expressions are hopeful, patient - doglike. Suddenly, people appear and take on the expressions of the dead birds. They look surprised and dignified.