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Overview
The
PBS station in Seattle, Channel 9, asked me in 1993
to contribute a piece for their "Spotlight
Series" in which they profile Northwest
artists.
My project dealt primarily with my relationship
to my parents who were both elderly and not in good
health. I was interested in memory and, to some
degree, the idea of conjuring the presence of a
person.
Project
The
piece I did was comprised of three elements for
each of my parents and myself:
 First,
I decided what object best represented each of us;
in the case of my father who is represented here,
his gardening hat.
Secondly,
I picked an image that corresponded to him; the
above culled from hundreds of old slides.
Finally,
I wanted a sound that would correlate to him. I
had always remembered his reading "The Call
of the Wild" by Jack London to me when I was
four or five. Through the years I had saved the
copy of the book he would read to me.
I sent the book back to the nursing home in Connecticut
he was living in at that point and asked to have
him recorded reading from it. He was 85 at that
time.
I also did a selection for my mother, who was living
in the same nursing home as my father (the same
room, for that matter) and one for myself.
Outcome
From
what I've been told, the project was well-received;
Channel 9 still plays it periodically. My mother and
father both died before it was aired. |
