Steward II (2024)

16mm projection on ground glass

Steward II questions the extent to which the queering of cinematic production can take place. In contrast with its the narrative film counterpart, Steward, screened at the Duke University Rubenstein Arts Center Film Theater, Steward II breaks the conventions of film production. Using cinematic equipment—ground glass and a c-stand—in unintended ways and pairing them with the negative film stock, Steward II places queered production into conversation with queer rurality. Ultimately, the installation depicts the eternal tension that results from ecological cinematic production. The very intention to depict nature and the wild is tainted by the reality of film as an industrial medium. These are tensions that also arise in the relationships between traditional agriculture and sustainable, queer ideas of stewardship like ‘rewilding.’ Through juxtaposing peaceful natural imagery with the loud, mechanical reality of 16mm projection, Steward II asks us to consider our understandings of rurality and natural spaces, leaving us to wonder how queer stewardship may alter conventional notions of farming as we look toward the future.

Installation at Duke University Smith Warehouse, April 2024