The Gift (What You Seek Is Seeking You)
“The Gift” is part of a larger body of work called “Comorbidity,” which thematically explores the simultaneous experience of diametrically opposed emotions through a familial landscape. Stratton’s archive of family films combine with her own video footage to present us with a dialogue between the past and present, making connections between the two.
In “The Gift,” Stratton juxtaposes family films as they were recorded, with altered footage that slowly pulls the image apart from itself, mimicking the experience of recalling only bits and pieces of a memory. Over time, memory morphs, losing parts of itself and often times reassembling in an inaccurate order when finally recalled. Stratton visually portrays this experience as the images switch back and forth from one place in time to another.
The Rumi quote, “What you seek is seeking you” is visually presented through the layered and repeated image of Stratton herself as the intention of recalling and holding onto familial memories is not only to reminisce, but also to find oneself in the context of others. The gift is thankfulness of what is and is not. It is finding a comforting place in time between personal histories and the present.
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Project Type:Experimental, Short, Web / New Media, Other
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Genres:Experimental Video and Sound
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Runtime:2 minutes 5 seconds
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Completion Date:December 6, 2014
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Production Budget:0 USD
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Country of Origin:United States
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Country of Filming:United States
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
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17 Days Video SeriesThe Bret Llewellyn Art Gallery – Alfred State College, Alfred, New York
October 6, 2015 -
Society for Photographic Education's Multicultural Caucus Film FestivalNew Orleans, Louisiana
March 7, 2015 -
Group ShowArt Center of Battle Creek, Battle Creek, MI
April 4, 2015
Heather Stratton is a electronic media artist focusing on the human condition through a feminine lens, ritual & repetition and the supernatural. She has shown her work and given artist lectures nationally and internationally.