In support of experiences that are essentially common, but to which language does not easily adhere, the video passes through places that are both themselves, and stand-ins for others. The title is taken from Aleister Crowley’s 1918 translation of the Tao Te Ching.
Camera, Edit, Sound Design: Deborah Stratman
Music: Eliane Radigue
Filmmaker Deborah Stratman works in a territory between experimental and documentary genres. In her films and frequent work in other media, including drawing, sculpture, sound, photography and small press, she explores the history, uses, mythologies and control of highly varied landscapes, from Muslim Xinjiang China to suburban southern California. Her recent work addresses American constructs of Freedom, the junction between technology and faith and contemporary locations of the supernatural. Stratman teaches in the School of Art & Design at the University of Illinois in Chicago.
Stratman was the subject of a mid-career retrospective,The Thing Unnamed, at MoMA New York in 2013.