My solo work explores the interpretation and misinterpretation of language conveyed in overheard conversations, in mass media narratives, and original texts I have specifically written for the page. The formation, and ultimately transference of these words onto the screen, add another layer of manipulation and representation of image and its relationship to language.
In my films that incorporate live action, images are often random events captured on my digital camera or iPhone. Sometimes I will witness something and film it and then write about it, or sometimes I am in the process of writing a piece and will see images that fit together with the text. I often rely on happenstance.
Each film incorporates printed text; its utilization is intended to manipulate, challenge and engage the viewer to regard the dissection of language that effectuates change in our culture.
This choreographed exploitation of text on screen is defined by the size of the letters, the placement of words in the frame, the amount of time words appear and disappear on screen, and the movement and pacing of each word. Some of the films incorporate sound, whereby the viewer can eavesdrop on snippets of conversations, be interrupted or drawn in further by background noise or music.
Words are sometimes repeated, deleted, or move too quickly, prompting viewers to elicit their own perceptions and interpretations of what they believe they just saw or heard, what they gleaned and absorbed. All these elements conspire and provoke recontextualization.
Some of these films employ appropriated texts and images interwoven with fictional statements often in the form of poetic lines, to disrupt and underscore the signs of how we are informed in everyday life in both the collective unconscious and individual consciousness.
Several films are categorized as experimental documentary essays.
The work can be shown on monitors of any size and/or projected directly onto walls. Each series of films can be grouped together in a loop, or each film can stand alone.
Links are available upon request.
©2026 Susan Kouguell Statement