second nature : FERAL
wood, plaster, insulation, sandpaper, wiring, glass, plastic, glue, paper, textiles, fake fur, wool, paint. House: 4’ x 4’ x 3’. 2017.
Shown both as a stand-alone film (9 minutes) or as an installation with the projected film looped alongside the destroyed house & sets. Commissioned by the Available Light Film Festival.
An abandoned house deteriorates as time, nature and the elements take over, destroy, and ultimately transform it. It reads as a time-lapse shot over several years, but in reality it’s an animation of a scale model shot over several months, with the ruin and decay all animated by hand, the house gradually collapsing over time. Even out of destruction there can emerge a transformative beauty: the house becomes uninhabitable to some, but in its decay becomes refuge and possibility for others.
Changes in the environment are nearly imperceptible unless sped up as a time lapse: suddenly trees spring up and fall back to earth; generations of species eat, sleep, reproduce, die; the very shape of the land fluctuates. Days, seasons & decades cycle endlessly; climate and ecosystems adapt, falter, regenerate, flourish. Life is resilient.
For second nature catalogue pdf:
secondNaturecatalogue
Second Nature : FERAL from veronica verkley on Vimeo.