“Kerry Laitala is a media archaeologist whose works spans the territories of photography and expanded cinema performances to 3D single channel videos and sculptural installation. Laitala’s work synthesizes ideas and ephemera from the realms of science, history, and technology. Her multifarious investigations into evolving systems of belief involve installation, photography, para-cinema, performance, kinetic sculpture, and single-channel forms. She holds her fingers to the pulse of every project she creates to make a work of art that breathes with a life of its own, possessing a singular vision. She studied photography and film at the Massachusetts College of Art and received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.” (Kerry Laitala’s Vimeo page)
Laitala’s Knee Jerk (2017) is a hybrid moving image work of 16mm and digital video, which was made in collaboration with her students in the Advanced Processing Workshop of the Personal Cinema class at the San Francisco Art Institute. In Knee Jerk, educational medical film material is hand-processed, manipulated and recontextualized by the voices of women including Christine Blasey Ford and Kamala Harris, at Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing.
Phantogram (2008): “Shivery bits of elusive emulsion and refractive light sprays ignite the depths of two dimensions to expand the terrain of undulating forms. Vertical motion of frameless space testing the limits, Phantogram unites the torch and surface where forms are made mobile. Indecipherable messages from the dead, Phantogram is a telepathic telegram captured on the medium of film….. The “redblind” refraction of elements explored, expand beyond the edges of the frame using sweeping gestures and textures both torn and tactile. Slippery shimmers slide across the celluloid strip to embed themselves on the consciousness of viewers.” (Kerry Laitala’s Vimeo page)