pandora's box

video / mixed media / ceramic
2004

Gathering a collection of historical footage from the first half of the 20th century, artist Tara Ernst has strung together a montage of the mechanisms of progress. Industrialization films, auto factories, telegraph offices, product advertisements and assembly-lines.; films whose original intent was to celebrate the efficiency and beauty of the advancement of new technologies. Now, viewed through the lens of history, these images seem clearly more sinister. A five minute video montage is placed on a small screen inside a decayed and rusted looking box forcing the viewer to look though a small hole in order to view portions of the film. Referencing the viewing experience of early cinema inventions such as the kinetoscope, Pandora's Box seems like an archeological object from cinema's past - transmitting a foreboding message to future viewers.

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