In early 2020, Kristen Gallagher and Tara Nelson began a collaboration working with the large, underexplored collection of lantern slides at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York, where Nelson is an archive curator. Periodically, Nelson chooses a group of 3-5 slides and shares images of them with Gallagher, who chooses from among the selection, writes a brief response (under 500 words), and records herself reading it. Nelson then makes a short film featuring the slide and Gallagher’s soundtrack. The idea is to keep things moving, process-oriented, anarchic, quick and dirty, against perfectionism. The plan is to continue the series until every slide in the collection has been included—a goal neither artist will live long enough to accomplish. This project was awarded a 2021 NYSCA Artist’s Grant. Videos from the collaboration can also be found at Air/Light and Dīstantia.
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KRISTEN GALLAGHER is a writer interested in form, ecology, and the weird. Her books include 85% True/minor ecologies (Skeleton Man 2017), Grand Central (Troll Thread 2016) and We Are Here (Truck Books 2011). Recent work appears in Peach Mag, The Baffler, and Air/Light. A 2021 collaboration with David Diaz (Human Scale), “hs341: 85% True/minor ecologies,” an infinitely generative audio piece using recorded sounds of Florida, is available through the Human Scale app. Her hybrid work “Six Years in Florida” was a finalist for the 2020 Essay Press Creative Nonfiction contest. Selections from 85% True appeared in the Best American Experimental Writing edited by Myung Mi Kim.
TARA MERENDA NELSON is a filmmaker, curator, programmer and lecturer working with film and digital media. Her films, videos and installations have been shown at MoMA, Flaherty NYC, Views from the Avant Garde (NYFF), the Dallas Medianale, VideoEx Film Festival (Switzerland), Anthology Film Archives, MONO NO AWARE, the Warhol Museum, and many galleries and festivals throughout the US, Canada and Europe. She is the Curator and Director of Public Programs at Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY, and Assistant Editor of the Film Art Book imprint of VSW Press.
