Shroud is a video-based performance work that focuses on the relationship between a genuine experience, and an authored, or created one. This work uses aspects of performance art, video editing, raw or primal actions, and censorship as a way of merging these two distinctly different types of experiences.
Often, performance art is about being present, and honest, bearing all for the viewer to see. Video, on the other hand, is subjected to editing, rehearsal, and other forms of fabrication. Because of these discrepancies, video-based performance lives in a strange space between what is honest, and what is fabricated. By obscuring the performance to the point that the viewer is unable to see what is actually happening, this piece becomes about the question of the action, rather than the action itself.
Through the use of a live VHS mixer in the recording process, I was able to create the obstruction upon recording, as opposed to adding it in post-production. This adds another layer of questioning as to the honesty and ‘live versus edited’ dichotomy between video and performance. Because of this, there is also no existing footage of the performance unobstructed, keeping it more pure in form.