Event Details
In person: filmmaker Janie Geiser in conversation with USC professor Holly Willis
Southern California-based artist Janie Geiser’s wide-ranging practice includes performance, film, installation, and art. Known for its recontextualization of abandoned images and objects; embrace of artifice; and investigation of memory, power, and loss, Geiser’s work “prowls around the mysterious boundary-land between territories—like the lands of the conscious and the unconscious mind, or life and death” (Holly Willis). The seven recent works that encompass Time, a substance span 2019–25, and include several that were made during the early years of the pandemic. The films move in and out of tangible and intangible spaces, defined by collage sources including faded photographic slides, empty photo albums, a child’s shooting game, photographs, negatives, and renderings created with a desktop home designer program. Each film’s distinct visual and... sonic texture translates to a uniquely haptic experience, with Geiser’s layering and close-ups striking a deep chord in our sense memories.
All films directed by Janie Geiser.
Reverse Shadow
2019. 8 min. USA. Color. Sound. Digital
Absent Objects
2020. 8 min. USA. Color. Sound. Digital
22 Light-Years
2021. 18 min. USA. Color. Sound. Digital
Vaporetto
2021. 3 min. USA. Color. Sound. Digital
Heliotrope
2023. 7 min. USA. Color. Sound. Digital
Chameleon Law
2022. 8 min. USA. Color. Sound. Digital
Sudden Tourniquet
2025. 8 min. USA. Color. Digital
Total program runtime: approx. 60 min.