Sliding Doors (both of them at the same time)
Two-channel video installation with sound, color
68:06:40
2016
Installation Documentation Excerpt:
The second in a series of two channel videos using the 1998 Gwyneth Paltrow film Sliding
Doors as a starting point. The original film follows two different versions of Gwyneth Paltrow
navigating a world of unemployment and cheating boyfriends. The two different Gwyneths
are created by either missing, or not missing, a train, and are each signified by new haircuts.
Wikipedia tells us this film is maybe a rip-off of Kieslowski, which is perfect.
This installation uses two formal tics (violent strobing as a gesture of abdication, and
bisecting source material) and applies them to the film poster for Sliding Doors, which shows
both Gwyneths. The posters are cut in half and rapidly shown pixel by pixel. Intercut with
black, white, and solarized frames, the posters become an excuse to restage the editing
tactics of structuralist film, the best form of advertising. The accompanying audio piece
consists of excerpts from Gwyneth Paltrow’s e-commerce personality-driven mindfulness
webshop, GOOP.