Lurk

2010

 

Installed in the street level windows of the unoccupied 100 year-old Lafayette Hotel in downtown Buffalo, the 4-channel projection depicts scenes from the haunting of the “Four Horsewomen of the Unease.” This is simultaneously a cautionary tale about decline and a ghost story equipped with empowering female entities ready to combat the abject. Albeit short of apocalyptic, “unease” conveys the sense of impending doom generated during periods of economic crises. The Lafayette Hotel, designed by the first female American architect Louise Blanchard Bethune, was built in the early 1900s during the height of Buffalo’s glory days as one of the premier cities in the nation, but the hotel continued to reflect the fate of the city as it entered into a state of post-industrial downturn decades later. In Lurk, the hotel is presented as symbolic of not only a pervasive urban condition but also a global fear. Apprehension is generated by the collision between the hotel’s rocky history and an uncertain future, and manifested in the residual presence of those who have passed through.

 

 


 


 

media: video
duration: 1-4 min. loops (variable)
installation:
W:48′ H:16′
camera: Millie Chen
animation: Chris Ferrari
rider: Cindy Mustoe
horse: This Way Mister

 

Curated and supported by Albright-Knox Art Gallery and Squeaky Wheel for Beyond/In Western New York 2010.