MattFlix presents Beth Collar’s The Island of the Dead (2014).

Calling to mind the Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin’s Island of the Dead (1883), The Island of the Dead documents a performance for camera delivered on top of a burial mound, on top of a hill, as the sun goes down.

The artist moves in and out of frame, addressing the audience directly, or directing the audience with her finger, repeatedly drawing attention to a large rock out at sea; the place where all of the dead go. As the light fades, the camera begins to struggle, unsure of what to focus on. The result is an image that oscillates between romantic landscape and something more physically embodied in the screen; a pulsating, dark hole.

Duration: 28:15

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