Jordan Strafer, PUNCHLINE
January 5 – February 6, 2022
Opening Wednesday, January 5, 5-9pm
Appointments are required. Make one here.
https://mailchi.mp/participantinc.org/jordan-strafer-punchline?e=00dbab70ce
IMAGE: Jordan Strafer, PEAK HEAVEN LOVE FOREVER, 2021, video, color, sound, 19 minutes. [A color video still of a cream colored leather seat in a wood paneled luxury air ambulance. Outside the oval window beside the seat, a hand appears as if lightly pressing against it from the exterior.]
Some kind of thing is going to happen. I think we might be flying over Florida. The inrushing air sounds like a waterfall.
I’m with the men. I’m lying down and they are standing up. One of them has diamond brooches on his shirt. Behind him there’s a pregnant woman and another man. One of them says, “put two fingers in your mouth and tell me a terrible story.”
I am wearing a short-sleeved mini dress. “He takes the joy out of everything,” I think to myself as he waits for the story. Then I say with my mouth full, “No matter how bad things are, they could always get worse. And behind every cloud… there’s a lot of rain.” He says, “You’re kidding.” I pause and say, “Happy birthday daddy. This flight is an explosive bomb.”
The group is laughing. I think to myself, “I am really funny.” I say, “Let’s tell each other something about ourselves.” Everyone starts butting in. I say, “Hold on, hold on. Let’s go in a circle.”
Then we make a circle of different things becoming the same thing. I dance on the line of this circle, but I do not cross it. It is lit only from the inside.
“For the love of horror puppets and reenacting trauma,” PARTICIPANT INC begins 2022 with PUNCHLINE,a solo exhibition by Brooklyn-based video artist Jordan Strafer that will premiere the artist’s new video and related works on paper. Strafer’s recently completed video work PEAK HEAVEN LOVE FOREVER is based on a true story of kinship and betrayal aboard a transatlantic air ambulance from London to Miami. Including life-size dolls and starring live actors (in order of appearance) Marti Wilkerson, Jim Fletcher, Alexandro Segade, and Cammisa Buerhaus.
PEAK HEAVEN LOVE FOREVER
Written and Directed by Jordan Strafer
Cast: Cammisa Buerhaus, Jim Fletcher, Alexandro Segade, Marti Wilkerson
Producers: Jordan Strafer, Lizz Astor, Emir West
Assistant to the Director: Emir West
Director of Photography: Carl Knight
Assistant Camera: Godfred Sedano
B camera & Sound Recording: Larry Bovik
Gaffer: Collin Leitch
Set Electric: Jonah Peterschild
Lead Props & Costumes: Vita Kurland
Props: Anne Cousineau, Chloe Cerabona, Dante Hussein, Mariana Sanchez
Lead Makeup: Caroline Mills
Makeup: Aine Vonnegut
Makeup Assistant: Dante Hussein
Production Assistant: Carlos Negron
Original Soundtrack: Wibke Tiarks
VFX: Alex Bliss
Sound mix: Aron Sanchez
Color: Alex Zandi, Carl Knight
Flight path animation: Aron Sanchez
Production stills: Mariana Sanchez
Movie Poster printed co-designed by Inpatient Press
Supported by: Participant Inc, The Renaissance Society, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, Rocking R, Elissa Mogilefsky & Len Weiselberg, Matthew Goedecke, Bruce Hainley, Kabir Carter, AK Burns
Special Thanks: Lia Gangitano, Glen Fogel, Jonathan Berger, Lazar Bozic, Brooke Nicholas, Kyle Dancewicz, Sohrab Mohebbi, Isabel Mallet, Alex Zandi, Alan Segal, Bill Dietz, Bard MFA, John Brattin, T De Long, Harry Kleeman, Andrew Norman Wilson, Marbles, Juliana Garcia
In Loving Memory of Holly Skolnick & Guy Strafer
Concurrently, Jordan Strafer will occupy HOME Gallery as the first organizational partnership between PARTICIPANT and HOME.
Jordan Strafer’s PEAK HEAVEN LOVE FOREVER will be streamed on Renaissance TV, an online platform and production fund created by the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago and dedicated to moving image.
