“Invisible Man 2.0” is a revisiting of a video installation first conceived as a proposal for the Program for Media Artists Film & Video Fellowship in 2004. The idea for that proposal was to have a video incorporating images of myself, an African mask, and a robot in a subway tunnel that would capture the viewer’s attention while riding next to strangers where every effort is made to maintain the status of “stranger”.
Using my figure as a mask, I have placed Wells’ Invisible Man inside of my body. His gestures of unmasking are used here as self-conscious attempts to call attention to his invisibility. His sometimes frantic movements are meant to represent internalized struggles in contrast with my figure’s slow deliberation.
In order to address another aspect of invisibility related to race and cinema I have included footage from the 1959 film Black Orpheus as a supplement to the H.G. Wells footage. I have only selected images from the film that deal with ambient landscapes, urban exteriors, business interiors, etc. These background elements making up the texture of the film are also “lost in translation” when the focus is on the narrative. The image of the robot is central to many of my works and in this instance relates to the transformation of the self, the non-racialized body, and issues of human interaction with technology. My intention is to engage in a dialogue about invisibility that addresses the lessons of the past, is relevant to our present, and speculates on the future.
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