He Said I Was Wrong (1994)
Art Video
(Writer • Director • Videographer • Editor)
S Y N O P S I S
This project is an example of my early work in Art Video. I am proud of this piece for a number of reasons, including the encouragement I received during the annual juried art show at the University of Nevada, Reno. As with most of my early work this project started out as a class assignment. Working while attending school, both money and time were in short supply. I had a rule for myself that I would treat every assignment–no matter how insignificant the exercise–as though it were the only time I was allowed to make art. I was taking my coursework very seriously. I was doing a lot of writing at the time and going through sketchbooks and journals looking for snippets of prose that I might be able to make into photo-text projects and handmade books, or combine with moving images. I came across an old micro-cassette recorder I had stored in a trunk. Listening to the tiny tapes, I discovered a much younger version of myself explaining a relationship that had gone wrong in a sort of audio diary. At that point the tapes were about five years old, but it could have been a lifetime ago or a different person. I felt sorry for this girl, but I was oddly proud of her at the same time because she wasn’t as big of a dummy as I remembered. Clearly confused by the situation, she was trying to work out what had happened to make sense of the circumstance and not doing such a bad job. I did, however, think it was sad that she had to talk to herself to feel better, especially when rejection is such a universal human experience. So I decided to combine a portion of the recording with video images, hoping to emphasize some of the deeper philosophical questions of human interaction, vulnerability, and self-reflection.
E X H I B I T I O N R E C O R D
1994 Sheppard Contemporary Gallery Annual Student Art Show University of Nevada, Reno. Juror: Paul Kos. –Cash Award $100
C R E D I T S
g e n r e / c a t e g o r y : Art Video
w r i t t e n a n d d i r e c t e d b y : Kelly Wittenberg
s t a r r i n g : Kate Nelson
o r i g i n a l l y s h o t o n : VHS
a r t / d e s i g n / c o n s t r u c t i o n : Kelly Wittenberg
c o s t u m e s / m a k e u p : Kelly Wittenberg
v i d e o g r a p h y : Kelly Wittenberg
e d i t i n g : Kelly Wittenberg
t o t a l r u n n i n g t i m e : 5:33 minutes