Reid Bruner
Silent Transcripts
Romanticism has ruined love, forced it into constraints that fit society’s whims and envision it solely as a “force for good.” This skewed perspective disregards how love can be a terrible thing willing to tear apart any obstacle in its path, an excuse and cover for vast abuses—a way to invisibilize and dehumanize others. A few people were gathered to discuss how love and human connection can be twisted to the detriment of others. Then, a distorted or otherwise tense photo was taken of the person. In this way, the art became a communal process where the boundaries between artist/audience are blurred in order to expand the dialogue around these topics.
Finally, a series of works involving vials were made to represent “bodies” who have been through this “terrible love.” To fall upon an old cliché, these “messages in bottles” are visceral visual statements demanding the viewer to rethink their ideas of love, sexuality, and romance so those harmed through these channels can have their voice heard.
Lines of Flight
A common thread laces these photos together: tension, fissures, and the movement wrapped around these moments of imminent unraveling. Starting off this study of blurred, disjointed motion, I focused on commonplace gestures, like the clenching and un-clenching of a fist, and how—if the entire movement is seen “at once”—we witness a collapsing of time. In this way, we wrap and distort time around our wrists, seat it in the webs of our fingers, and scratch it out with our nails. Even the pieces not focused on motions of the body reflect this idea, each representing a moment of release, of catharsis coinciding with a point of rupturing. As such, each photo charts a line of flight and escape from the chaos inherent to it, invoking a way to shake off our ghosts.