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Facing South

5 min excerpt

Lisa Steele. 1974. Video, b/w, sound. 22:00

“This tape begins with a voice-over assertion (my own) that … ‘sometimes I look at things too closely, seeing them in too much detail.’ The tape which follows is a visual diary of an early spring growing season. Seen in extreme close-up, however, the environment is decidedly unnatural. the garden is on a window sill; the animals are pets; female sexual parts are seen through a magnifying glass. Here, I wanted not so much to ‘record’ daily life as to reflect on the unreliability of paralleling female experience and natural cycles. The two are not the same thing. I wanted to show a female experience which was analytic in its relation to nature.” L.S.