2009
(based on the 4-channel 2007 version)
Animated loop
Color, silent, single channel
Running time: 3 minutes
OVERVIEW
An animated Arctic dystopia unfolds, and on this slow-moving stage of icebergs and e-waste, two representatives from the top of the food chain appear to co-exist: polar bears, and people. Their relationship is tenuous, or at best ambiguous. All the source materials for this piece were found on web sites like youtube which, much like the whitewashed stage of the Arctic, is a shared ecology of the imagination and of which we are custodians. The Poster Children offers up fractured, multiple views of these characters, who are here seen “off-duty” from their roles as propaganda actors. The open question this piece intends to ask is: what is left?
The Poster Children is part of a suite of animated works, whose themes circulate around apocalyptic fantasies of the deluge and climate change, of water, ice, animals, and humans, and whose form is influenced by the narrative and cartoon-like formats of Asian screen and scroll paintings.
WRITING
Essays at The Scholar & Feminist's "Gender on Ice" conference (Barnard College):
Intro (Elena Glasberg)
The Poster Children (Marina Zurkow)