Jewel Weed

It is the year 10AA (After Apocalypse), 10 years after the Final Year of the Common Era, the last overthrow and collapse of the dying threads of capitalism - which took with them, through pollution, violence, and greed, the polar ice caps, all the world’s glaciers, and a couple hundred miles of livable land on all coasts - entire island nations now underwater, if nations were a thing that still existed - but a belief in borders died when most of the population did as the weather patterns became erratic and wildfires and drought took what tsunamis, hurricanes, and flooding didn’t get to first. Appalachia is a sanctuary for the entire eastern part of the continental landmass formerly known as North America. It is populated by survivors - those who were here building sanctuary and those who came here fleeing the violence of global climate change and societal collapse. The Forest is ferocious, fertile, desolate, mechanical, psychic, sentient, abundant, and most of all - HOME.  We survive / thrive through radical community collaboration. I provide physical record, preserved process, material evidence to contribute to my community in my role as illuminator (sometimes called scribe, depending on the dialect).

"Fellow Filmmakers! Where will you be in the 21st century? ... When your film lab is completely reduced to rubble, how are you going to keep making films?"

- Helen Hill, Madame Winger Makes a film

Looping caffenol processed 16mm film, jewelweed phytograms, and direct animation - bucket processed and contact printed with a flashlight and gang synchronizer. This was a commissioned installation for Krafthouse: Forest of New Trees, in which filmmakers and artists were invited to imagine post-apocalyptic Appalachia and create installations, films, and interactive booths to be set up in a "market" in the basement of the Center for Craft in Asheville, NC. The film was made with this in mind, and was processed and printed using homemade chemistry and diy methods to align with this imagined future.