Helen Park
Works on Film
and
Video
2002-2008
The Wheel of Dreams and Prayers (China & Korea) (4 min | Mini DV |
Color | Sound )¡ November 2009
Utilizing
footage from a Buddhist temple in China and a Catholic memorial service for my
grandmother in Korea, this video is a visual exploration on the various ways we
use prayer to connect to or transcend the moment and to honor the dead. I am
interested in the particular movements of prayer, more specifically in the
motion of the bow. There is a beauty in this gesture of humility, honor and
supplication that I try to capture through the images and their treatment.
Lastly, throughout this piece I am looking for the moments of stillness in
motion, and motion in stillness.
ecstatic. Live dance
w/ multi-channel video installation. Video
projection design: Helen Park, Choreography and dance: Brian Buck. (4:23 Min |
Three Channels | Silent) ¡ December 2008
Live camera feed with three-channel video
projections were designed to create visual and rhythmic patterns based upon the
choreography. Created for the stage, utilizing various projection surfaces,
live camera feed, and other digital media.
Flight
Patterns. Live dance w/ multi-channel video
installation. (3:13 min | Mini DV, HDV | Color | Sound) ¡ May 2008
A collaborative multi-media installation work for
dance which explores the dynamic unfolding of patterns through movement and
image. Video projections were designed with Isadora software, incorporating a
live camera feed and interactivity between the dancer and the images through multiple
projectors.
The
Wheel of Dreams and Prayers
(19:40 min | mini dv | color | sound) ¡
October 2007
Presented in three parts to form a circular
narrative, this video-poem is an exploration of the act of dreaming and
alternate states of consciousness. The weaving of familiar and unfamiliar
images crafts a narrative through dream time, Buddhist temples, and
city-spaces. This video is an attempt to articulate through visual language how
we channel the transcendent human experience through the secular and the
mundane of the everyday world.
The
Death of Death (3:20 min | mini dv | color | sound) ¡ July
2007
A music video for the band Bang Lime. A story of
survival: what happens when a bear and a wolf try to suppress their natural
urges in order to make it in the human world? This video explores the
consequences.
the
earth is the heart of a whale (3:20 min | mini dv |
color | sound) ¡ December 2006
A dreamlike, stream-of-consciousness video-poem
with a soundtrack set to Tom WaitsÕ Fawn, heartbeats, and oceans. Footage was
culled from 16mm archival footage, video tape of beluga whales, and image
overlays constructed in Google Earth.
grow (7:00
min | mini dv | color | sound) ¡ March 2006
Grow is a meditation on solitude, love, and
spirituality. It seeks to express the space between the known and unknown and
the passage of time from past into present then into open future. Sound from
Hal AshbyÕs Harold and Maude and ambient works by Aphex Twin. Text from Rainer
Maria RilkeÕs ÒLetters To A Young Poet.Ó
Dry
Drunk Emperor (7:10 min | mini dv | color | sound) ¡
September 2005
A political music video using stock news footage
of Iraq and New Orleans post Hurricane Katrina, Google Earth programming, as
well as video tape from anti-war protests in Washington DC. This video was made
after the events of Katrina and attempts to draw connections between US domestic
and international affairs. Music provided by TV on the Radio. (Featured on
Vlogmap.org, Fall 2005).
What
Godard Said (5:10 min | mini dv, vhs, 16mm | black &
white | sound) ¡ March 2005
Godard remixed. This piece juxtaposes images from
a film shot in the Spring of 1999, which was made as an homage to Jean Luc
GodardÕs My Life To Live, with a specific scene from that film. An exploration
of language and the ÔreadingÕ of image and montage, based on semiotic theory of
Gilles Deleuze. 16mm Directors of Photography: Ming Chen & Francesca Romeo.
(Reviewed and featured on DVblog.org, 2006).
Portraits
of Brooklyn Youth
(30 min | mini dv | color | sound) ¡ May
2005
Portraits of Brooklyn Youth is a series of projects made with the
collaboration of the youth of Bushwick High School. Students were asked to draw
a personal map of their neighborhood, then create a "videomap" based
on it. These portraits are part of a larger documentary project and interactive
DVD exploring issues of identity, belonging, and place.
self-portrait
(6:20 min | mini dv | color | sound) ¡ November 2004
A
portrait which explores the concept of the self as a densely layered entity of
time and space, histories and present realities. The images were shot and
edited using the ten sign system of semiotician Charles Peirce. I wanted to see
if I could convey my concept of self in a cohesive form using primarily signs
of "secondness," which is one of the three phenomenological categories
of Peirce's system. This category deals with indexical signs of specificity and
the factual; things of material fact, brute force, and clarity within the
object of the sign.
Hassan
Wants To Be A Bird
(3:30 min | mini dv | color | sound) ¡
September 2004
Using outtakes from a music video shot a year
before and set to a new soundtrack by RachelÕs, this video is a delicate and
whimsical video-poem about a man yearning to fly.
Heartstorm (4:55
min | mini dv | color | sound) ¡ September 2004
A meditation on movement, catharsis, and hurricanes. Images were collected
from a computer monitor of palm trees in the turbulence of a hurricane. Music:
"Desired Constellation", Bjork.
Untitled
(yr million sweetnesses)
(2:45 min | digital-8 & mini dv |
color | sound) ¡ July 2004
Combining digital Hi-8 and digitally rendered
found footage and set to singer-songwriter Diane CluckÕs Òyr million
sweetnesses,Ó this video attempts to express the cathartic release of loss and
letting go.
The
Utopia Project (20 min | mini dv installation | color |
sound) ¡ April-June 2004
Intended as a series of video installations to be projected onto the
streets and architecture of the Financial District, NYC. The placement and
arrangement of the projections were designed to create an experiential journey
through a dynamic city-space where the virtual and the material interact.
Subjects were interviewed on various concepts and perceptions of ÒUtopiaÓ,
place, and social change.
Dreams (5:10
min | mini dv | color | sound) ¡ December 2003
Music video commissioned by TV on the Radio and
Touch & Go Records for the bands premiere full-length album, released
Spring 2004. (Featured online at NPRÕs All Songs Considered).
i
know the rainy days
(5:00 min | mini dv & 16mm | color |
sound) ¡ June 2003
A short video-poem using 16mm stock footage of
Humpback Whales and a soundtrack from the Cocteau TwinsÕ I Wear Your Ring.
Rock
Star (9:00 min | digital-8 | color | sound) ¡
September 2002
Part documentary and part visual poetry, this
piece attempts to break down and examine the movement and character of the rock
& roll performer. Through distilling specific ÔrockÕ gestures and
movements, beauty is found beneath the surface of the gaze. (Moto Experimental
Film & Video Series - Brooklyn, NY, MeDia Co-op digital Film Series -
Memphis, TN, Review - FilmThreat.com).
Breezy
Point, USA (9:30 min | digital-8 | color | sound) ¡
June 2002
Through solarized footage and visual abstractions
Breezy Point, USA depicts a day at the beach in four parts. Set to a soundtrack
which narrates and weaves each segment, this video piece takes seemingly
disparate and mundane moments and attempts to transform them into a cohesive
whole. (MeDia Co-op digital Film Series - Memphis, TN, eKsperimento Film and
Video Festival - Manila, Philippines).
Hope (6:30
min | digital-8 | color | sound) ¡ June 2002
A short image-based video-poem set to the music of the Dirty Three. HOPE
explores the movement of objects in flight: planes and birds, as well as the
movement of a specific part of the human body: the hands. Through the
deterioration and manipulation of the image, the film seeks to discover a new
beauty in the isolated object as well as to create a sense of transcendence
from sadness and melancholy. (MeDia Co-op digital Film Series (Grant recipient)
- Memphis, TN, eKsperimento Film and Video Festival - Manila, Philippines,
Fresh Film at Anthology Film Archives, Ocularis New Filmmakers Series. Reviewed
at FilmThreat.com and DVblog.org).