Leigh Davis: Inquiry into the ELE (2016-2019)
Original Opening: March 6, 2020
Closed For COVID-19: March 11, 2020
Re-Opened: September 12, 2020
Closed: September 26, 2020
Run Time: 21:47, HD Video, Stereo Sound
Leigh Davis: Inquiry into the ELE (2016-2019) screens on-loop with Kyuri Jeon: Born, Unborn and Born Again as part of 4th Wall film/video programming in Black Box
ARTIST STATEMENT
After an unusual and profound experience in 2013, I began an archive and body of work examining end-of-life experiences (ELEs) and their role as tools to help us understand both the emotional intricacy of grief and the ways in which we construct our beliefs about human consciousness and a possible afterlife. ELEs are unusual experiences which typically occur before, during, or after the time of a death by a person who has lost a loved one. These experiences have been reported throughout all cultures, times, and places, and can be interpreted as premonitions, deathbed visions, golden light, changes in the atmosphere, or eerie coincidences. Over the past four years, I have recorded and collected numerous ELE accounts through interactions with hospice nurses, chaplains, social scientists, therapists, and people of all spiritual backgrounds and capacities. These recordings are personal remnants of lives lived and lost, illuminating experiences which are rarely shared publicly but remain profoundly meaningful to those who experience them.
Featuring illustrated true accounts of individual end of life experiences during, or following the death of a loved one, Inquiry into the ELE is a collaborative study between myself and other ELE experiencers. Creating a model for seeing, recovering, and making memories visible, the film intertwines excerpts from selected end-of-life accounts with animations, dreams, objects, and interviews from experts in the social science, medical, and therapeutic fields.
Credits (in order of appearance): P.M.H. Atwater (2018), Peter Cadowen Fenwick (voice) adapted from interview by Iain Mcnay (2012), Rachel Griesinger (voice) reading written account by E.J. Milarski-Veenis (2014), Anonymous (voice), excerpt of interview (2015), Leigh Davis (voice) recorded excerpt (2017), E. Michelson excerpt of interview (2017), Jes Bedwinek (voice) reading written account by anonymous (2014).
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Leigh Davis is an interdisciplinary artist interested in the intersection of culture, community, and memory. Her work has been featured at Open Source Gallery and BRIC (Brooklyn), EFA Project Space (New York), Oliver Art Center at CCA (Oakland), and MICA (Baltimore). Recently, Davis created a site-based audio work for the historic chapel at Green-Wood Cemetery (Brooklyn). She is a recipient of numerous awards and grants, including those from The Pollination Project and the New York Department of Cultural Affairs. Davis holds a BFA in Photography from Savannah College of Art and Design, GA, and a MFA from Concordia University, Montreal. She teaches courses at Parsons the New School for Design and works between Brooklyn, NY and Washington, DC.
More Info: leighdavisprojects.com