above: excerpt from Kataigis, 2021 (to hear the sound press the sound icon located in the lower right corner of the moving image)

KataIgis

2021

digital 4K film projection, color, silent

duration: 3 minutes 59 seconds, limited edition, 3 + 2 AP

sound composition: Metamorphosis (Kataigis), 2021

limited edition c-prints (film stills), dimensions variable, edition of 3 + 2 AP

below: film stills, dimensions variable, limited edition 3 + 2 AP

Credits

directed, filmed, choreographed, sound composed and edited by Monika Weiss

movement performer: Melissa Gollance

Artist Statement

Kataigis, in ancient Greek “a storm descending from above” explores states of suspension and near stillness as a method of disrupting the experience of time. For this project I choreographed a performer in front of my camera. She is lying down on black scarfs which are forming a metaphorical river under her body dressed in black shroud.

Performing silently gestures of slow lamentation, the protagonist becomes Daphne, the mythological nymph who escaped rape by becoming a tree. The film evokes the suspended moment of her self-imposed transformation. Sound, which is part of a cycle Metamorphosis, is based on my acoustic piano improvisations, which I re-composed electronically to sonically symbolize Daphne’s skin hardening into a tree bark.

- Monika Weiss

Exhibition

emerging.poetic, Brick City Gallery, University of Missouri, Springfield, 2021, curated by Colby Jennings