TimeBody&Space2024 — Lorraine Cruz

Time, Body & Space (2024)
Visual Essay, Film

This is a film under the works that asks and explores the question "how do our bodies exist in space?". The film is set in New York city and I use themes of visibility, surveillance and urban infrastructure to create a visual essay montage of clips and that take the viewer through an induced existential state that contemplates questions like: how do we relate to our environments, how do we begin to know or feel where we are, how do our environments dictate the way we shift from the public vs the individual.

In this film, I ask the viewer to step outside of themselves and question the
concept of face and its inescapable consequences. I place the focus on my silhouette to invite the viewer to understand my experience and speculate their own. I use my silhouette throughout the film in different iterations, the projection of my back, a silhouette mask in the video, and a green screen effect. Through these different iterations I intentionally conceal my identity and choose to be semi-visible/legible to the viewer but not identifiable.This essay further articulates the film’s visual language, drawing connections to contemporary exhibitions and artists in conversations of visibility.

how do our bodies exist in space?

How do we relate to our environments?

How do we begin to know or feel where we are?

In Conversation
My work has not only been informed by my own personal experience but also by contemporary conversations around visibility and embodiment. From concealing the face, to the use of green screen and turned away subjects, I draw inspiration from the artists Lorna Simpson, Glenn Ligon and Farah Al Qasimis presenting their work at the Guggenheim show titled Going Dark (James 2024). This exhibit brings to light the ongoing conversation of identity and visibility from the experience of black and brown artists, a conversation that is not new, but one that is expanded and highlighted in the show. Additionally, I center Ja’Tovia Gary’s film The Giverny Suite (2019) , where she engages with the conversation of safety for black women and centers the lived experience of the body and brings attention to the systems that disrupt the experience of safety. Gary focuses on the embodiment of feeling and transmuting trauma, viewing healing as the root of her work

The silhouette is a central motif in my film, acting as a mask and a medium to abstract personal identity, an attempt at removing legibility from my character. The silhouette is expressed in the form of a mask , through back projection and use of green screen. These different visual techniques challenge the viewers to reflect on how identities are constructed and perceived –suggesting that capitalist interpretations shape identity.

I invite the viewer to contemplate on the boundaries between being seen and being recognized – questioning societal demand for legibility and visibility. My body in this film has a potent presence - it acts as a visual symbol of vulnerability. As I show my naked back in juxtaposition with a projected scene of a subway car full of people, I carry the intention of dissolving the line between public and private. This portrayal is an invitation to viewers to engage with the film on a personal level with the purpose of encouraging the viewer to dissolve their own restrictions around the public and private self.