job

Job

Digital Animation. 4:50 minutes. 4:3. 2009

Job was made from hundreds of photographs of the walls, fences and gates that line the streets of the small town of Melipilla on the outskirts of Santiago, Chile, where I lived for a number of years. Melipilla means four devils in Spanish. What initially held my interest was the rich texture and character of these facades, with some newly painted, others with crumbling stucco and concrete; some covered with layers of old concert postings or with the painted names of political candidates. Almost all under constant assault from taggers and graffiti artists. Most bore some form of protection from would-be intruders and thieves.

While editing the images together, I wanted the walls to come alive in some way that felt equal to my experience walking past, imagining the former lives and events that left their traces, and the present ones hidden behind. And equal to the drama of the town itself, predominately poor, but rich in memory and heritage.
Living walls, working walls, old walls. I imagined them in motion, like playing cards shuffled by a dealer - spreading out, being gathered together, or falling smoothly into position. Impromptu and spontaneous drawings were made over top - like ghosts, or like the thoughts and mental projections that constantly spring up and quickly dissipate as the observer strolls past.

The constant humming of bees and flys can be heard as a voice reads, in German, from the biblical story of Job. These walls, old and beaten, protecting and relenting, constantly reshaping and renewing.