Still Lives video portraits exhibit by media artist Susie J Lee
Monday, August 9, 2 – 4pm
Washington Care Center
2821 S. Walden St. Seattle, 98118.
Free to general public
A unique collaboration between a visual artist and a nursing home has resulted in an innovative series of video portraits about aging, time, image, memory, and relationships. Still Lives, a project by Seattle-based media artist Susie J Lee, explores questions about what we hold on to and what we let go over the passage of time.
The project is the result of more than three months of weekly visits to the Washington Care Center, a nursing and long-term care facility in Southeast Seattle.
In each visit, Lee conversed, listened to stories, played music and helped out, and sought to ground each resident’s portrait in their personality with a particular focus on where they are now and how they view their past.
Cinematographer and photography director RK Adams was later brought in to film each resident. The Still Lives video portraits are composed of moments that are inherently still, such as waiting, watching, and daydreaming. The work is not slowed down or frozen, but rather, is realized as an unfolding of real time.
Lee used the paintings of Spanish artist Francisco Goya as a model for each portrait. According to Lee, Goya’s interpretation of age, time and myth were conveyed in private, personal portraits, and these images resonated and inspired her body of work.
Still Lives is sponsored by SEEDArts and 4Culture’s Site-Specific and Individual Artist Projects programs.
Photo courtesy of RK Adams
