Experiencing Interruptions?

The Razor's Edge

“...we are walking the razor’s edge—we are in the present moment.”

- Charlotte Joko Beck, This Very Moment

The breath is a constant reminder of our physicality and an anchor to our embodied experience. In these video portraits performers exhale slowly against an unseen piece of glass, fogging and obscuring their faces in fleeting moments between breaths. When viewed on a screen, it creates the illusion that the performers are breathing against the screen itself. This work references the use of the “breath test” in the era before modern medicine where a mirror would be placed under the nose of the dying to test for respiration.

The illusion in the video is uncanny and the screen itself becomes the edge of the razor that separates both past from present, performer from viewer, and the living presence of the viewer from the illusion of life on the screen. An exploration in impermanence, embodiment, and the mediating presence of the screen, the work captures the breath - making it visible just long enough to be confronted by both performer and viewer.

INSTALLATION NOTE: Video can be installed as a single vertically mounted TV monitor which is the preferred method. It has also screened as a "three-up" portrait version for a more traditional film festival oriented format. However, the preferred installation method is as a single loop on a vertical wall mounted television monitor.

  • Stefani Byrd
    Director
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Other
  • Runtime:
    3 minutes 7 seconds
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • "Material Mortality", Artist Television Access
    San Francisco, California
    United States
    August 19, 2017
  • "Material Mortality", Last Projects
    Los Angeles, California
    United States
    October 14, 2016
  • "Respirations (NOW)!", Arc Gallery
    Chicago, Illinois
    United States
    August 28, 2020
  • "Flesh Spaces", Header/Footer Gallery
    New Media Caucus, Online Gallery
    United States
    July 1, 2020
  • "Clearly Human IV", St. Louis Artists’ Guild
    St. Louis, Missouri
    United States
    April 10, 2020
  • " Invulnerable Routes: Seventh Annual International Video Exhibition"
    Aggregate Space Gallery, Oakland, CA
    United States
    February 7, 2020
  • "Input/Output", MCC Art Gallery
    Mesa, Arizona
    United States
    January 27, 2020
  • "Beneath the Surface", Kruglak Gallery
    Oceanside, California
    United States
    September 8, 2017
  • "The Razor’s Edge", San Diego Art Fair
    San Diego, California
    United States
    March 4, 2016
Director Biography - Stefani Byrd

Stefani Byrd’s art practice includes video, new media, and interactive technologies. Byrd’s early work addressed social justice issues in the form of interactive temporary public art installations that created role reversal, or "empathy training,” experiences for the audience. Her current work focuses on creating psychologically charged immersive media environments addressing topics such as digital feminism, gun violence, and how technology impacts empathy in digitally mediated spaces. Her practice aims to shed light on the complicated nature of communication and emotional fluency in a networked culture where imbalanced power structures continue to shape our interactions. Often her work confronts or undermines these systems by turning the tables on traditional power relationships.

She has received grants and support from groups such as: Creative Capital of New York, Flux Projects, the InLight Richmond Festival, Atlanta Celebrates Photography, Filmatic Festival, IDEA Festival, and Idea Capital. Her work has been reviewed and featured in such places as the Public Art Review Magazine, the Public Art Archive, the Huffington Post, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, New Media Caucus, and Art Papers Magazine. In 2015, she trained in The Abramovic Method of Performance with Marina Abramovic. She is currently being trained in Pauline Oliveros’ method of Deep Listening with The Center for Deep Listening through Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Her work has been exhibited at places such as the CICA Museum (South Korea), the Museum of Contemporary Art of San Diego (San Diego), the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (Atlanta), Woman Made Gallery (Chicago), A.I.R. Gallery (Brooklyn), Last Projects (Los Angeles), Aggregate Space Gallery (San Francisco), Artist Television Access (San Francisco), PUNCH Gallery (Seattle), San Diego Art Institute (San Diego), StoveWorks (Chattanooga), and the Athens Institute for Contemporary Art (Athens). Byrd’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia and the Columbus Museum of American Art.

She received her BFA degree in Photography from Georgia State University. She holds a Masters Degree in Visual Art from the University of California San Diego. Byrd is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in Experimental Media Art at the University of Arkansas. She is a former Lecturer in the Digital Arts division of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California Irvine and the Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts (ICAM) major in the Visual Arts department at the University of California San Diego.

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