HEART OF NOWHERE

From 2001 to 2003, with the help of Jason McMaster, Darryl Jacks, and Joey Mansfield, I carried a video camera to as many interesting and odd places in Alabama as possible. What resulted is a 30 minute video document that deluges the viewer with snippets, all less than thirty seconds, of random and peculiar footage.

From a Christian singer-songwriter at a backwoods karaoke bar having a drunken breakdown on stage, to a person being dragged behind a truck on a flaming couch, to a Goth suspension show where the hooks accidentally ripped out of the legs of a man too heavy to be supported by them.

Heart of Nowhere is not intended to be viewed as a complete record of the subjects featured in the film, but solely as a glimpse of people and places usually kept out of frame.

QUAINT ART COLLECTIVE

Consisting of Joey Mansfield, Reed Barrow, and Walton Creel, Quaint was a collective intent on blending its work with the viewer, blurring art and entertainment, and combining rural southern culture with a healthy dose of the color pink, cute animals, grandma's house.

Every major project Quaint did was elaborate and consisted of installation, displayed works, and audience participation.

At Space One Eleven in Birmingham, Alabama, Quaint created installations in the gallery windows and, in the tradition of every tourist attraction, routed patrons to a set where they would have their picture taken with a Shih Tzu. They were not given the keepsake without paying $3.00.

In the exhibition Taxidermy and Video, at the University of Montevallo, Quaint transformed the art gallery into a large and a small wood paneled room. In the large room, patrons found themselves in a southern home environment, including taxidermy based art and a large wood-grained TV showing strange characters. As the patrons explored their environment and found levers and ropes to manipulate, they discovered their actions produced results on the television. Quaint was locked in the small room, subjected to the actions of the patrons. Likewise, Quaint had levers and ropes in the small room to trigger actions in the large room.