Apples and Bananas
Artists’ Statements
Gina Osterloh:
Through the simple gesture of trying to grasp, “Apples and Bananas” is a play on the futility of gender categories, critiquing the absurdity of our gendered expectations. The video is a response to Richard Serra’s 3-minute 30-second film “Hand Catching Lead” (1968), which has a grasping hand–in profile, palm facing camera–repeatedly missing, catching, dropping a piece of scrap lead.
Janis Butler Holm:
Gina Osterloh’s “Apples and Bananas” brought home to me that what we perceive to be natural–so natural that we readily consume it–is in fact a weighted ideology, designed to reinforce dominant binaries even as we fail to align with them.
Gina Osterloh’s photography, video, and performance art address symbolic themes and formal elements such as the void, the orifice, and the grid–and encourage a heightened awareness of color, repetitive pattern, and repeated actions. Osterloh’s work is represented by Silverlens (Manila) and Higher Pictures (New York).
Janis Butler Holm has served as Associate Editor for Wide Angle, the film journal, and currently works as a writer and editor in sunny Los Angeles. Her prose, poems, and performance pieces have appeared in small-press, national, and international magazines, including Posit. Her plays have been produced in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.
Bassist/composer/producer Joël Dilley’s original music is heard in TV, film, web, and ambient settings worldwide, including HBO, Discovery Channel, Food Network, and more. His website is www.joeldilley.com.
Award-winning songwriter Bett Butler’s poetry and short fiction have appeared in Weave, Feathertale, Voices de la Luna, Amp, and Fabula Argentea. Her website is www.bettbutler.com.
