Event

Wretched Woman/Pig or Poet?

WRETCHED WOMAN // Pig or Poet? is a two-part screening showcasing video works by Chicago-based artist, Emily Esperanza.

Pt. 1 -- WRETCHED WOMAN features four short videos that explore stillness, duration, atmosphere and archetype, specifically relating to representations of femininity. Presented in a series of tableaus, the works feature highly stylized sets and locations, isolated and displaced sound, static and often very wide shots, and characters that exist simultaneously within and outside of time.

Pt. 2 -- Pig or Poet? is a VHS screening of Esperanza's featurette, Spider & Fly. Spider & Fly blends existentialist ideals and lo-fi aesthetics with offbeat pacing, nonlinear narrative, gritty in-camera sound, and stark poetic romanticism. It is an unpolished portrait of an impassioned, dissolute, and ultimately vulnerable outsider's journey through an urban wasteland.

Featuring a feverish and haunting soundtrack from influential outsider musician, Jandek, and Santa Fe-based duo, Evarusnik.

Emily Esperanza is a director, video artist, curator, and photographer currently living in Chicago. She is currently working on her first feature, El Culto de la Muerte, shot in Oaxaca and Chicago. She is also the founder and curator of Chicagos Wretched Nobles, an immersive monthly film and video series and shorts program.

"An original voice in a sea of mundane posers. - Amy Davis, creative partner of Jon Moritsugu