directed by GINA TELAROLI Available on Kinet.Media
It is remarkable, given the duration of Silk Tatters,“NEC SPE NEC METU”: Brigadoon (14 minutes), the sensory density Telaroli is able to achieve by layering sequence upon sequence from films previous on top of each other while their disembodied audios make entrances languidly and random. It can a bit overwhelming at times yet continuously mesmerizing, but even in the distorted imagery downpours there does appear to be some semblance of order operating underneath. A quasi-collage that feels algebraic in its alchemy, functioning through various formulas carefully constructed by Telaroli in an attempt to unearth an unknown, with decryption settling at the foot of its viewers.
Admittedly, Telaroli’s aim and intention elude me as she is clearly functioning on a different (higher) intellectual level than myself; regardless, the sheer experience of her cryptic experimental ruminations render the transparency of her aims and intentions purposeless considering she achieves something more valuable: a sense of wonder. She is able to repurpose the past and parts of the present through classic film frames full of dancing, loving embraces and other sundry human interactions mixed together yet slightly separate, stopping just short of an emulsified image sequence; any attempt at visually separating the likes only blends the images further.
Incorporating film and digital, even investigating the tactile variances of a painting in combing close-up, Telaroli manages to assemble and rearrange various artworks from different time periods to create something entirely new. Be it by superimposing one classic Hollywood dance number over another or, merely, having one play out (sans audio) while the imagery is manipulated to bleed out in differing hue flushes. You are likely to found a number of films in the fold familiar. Gina Rowlands footage makes an appearance as does Charlie Chaplin’s Gold Rush escapades, his traversing transposed on top of enlarged pine needles.
Included alongside Telaroli’s SILK TATTERS on Kinet.Media is STARTING SKETCHES #7 (also directed by Gina Telaroli), an initial study for the project that would be SILK TATTERS. Jennifer Jones and Joan Crawford in a duelling dance sequence, if you will; one on top of the other unfolding concurrently like two parallel worlds existing at once. It is a nice primer for the viewing experience that is SILK TATTERS; a lead-up to the main event as well as an indication of what to expect.
In a rather roundabout way what I am saying is that I am not entirely sure what Gina Telaroli is attempting with Silk Tatters (or the ways in which she is able to create these images), but I do know the cycling of her experimentations create a sense of wonderment within me. It provokes thought and stimulates a certain intellectual portion of my mind, yet there remains a part of me that wants to continue the not-knowing, to simply see it as a reclamation of ‘movie magic’, refurbished and reconfigured into new instances of ‘movie magic’.
