Channel 2

Mommy’s Crystal Tears

2011, four channels, 7:40, HD video, surround sound
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Mommy’s Crystal Tears is a four channel video installation composed of two women’s faces isolated on a white background, separated by a slow moving close-up of a swaying chandelier. As a reference to Michelangelo’s Putti in his Sistine Chapel, winged babies soar above our heads, projected on the ceiling.

The women are a mother (projected on the left) and her daughter (projected on the right). The daughter’s amplified eyes are semi-transparent, orbiting reflective Black Obsidian crystals. The pupils are barely visible. She looks straight at us, occasionally shifting horizontally in deceptive increments. The esoteric mother hovers from above, embedded in a white cloth or cloud and looks down. She is crying raw diamonds, which at a closer look contain a blinking eye.

The two faces are separated by the third video, a slowly swaying chandelier towering towards a white ceiling. The Black Obsidian crystal and raw diamond hover in front of the swaying chandelier.

The diegetic sound of the crystal chandelier clinking as it sways has been stretched to the duration of one millennium. The first 7:40 of the millennium is heard in each cycle of the work. A motorized chandelier that sways 45º, 30cm from the floor is also installed in the exhibition space.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
4 HD video projectors
4 media players
5.1 surround sound system with optical input
8 speakers and 1 subwoofer
chandelier and motion device (provided by artist)
mattresses and cushions for viewing (provided by artist)

EXHIBITIONS and PUBLICATIONS
2020 As part of The Waiting Room at Art Initiative, Stockholm School of Economics
2017 As part of Houses and Whispers: Gunilla Josephson at Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, Toronto
2016 As part of Houses and Whispers: Gunilla Josephson at Rodman Hall Art Centre, St Catharines