THE FOLLOWING

Digital Video, 2011

The Following, 2011, digital video NTSC, 3 minutes, 27 seconds.

This work is part of  The Archive Series

The Following is about the retracing of past events both metaphorically and literally.

One day, after my father returned from a FBI photography and video surveillance course, he was practicing his new skills from the balcony of his apartment, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, filming a tightrope walker crossing a wire. The man he captured on film was Rick Wallenda. Rick Wallenda is the son of Karl Wallenda. Karl Wallenda established the family of circus performers The Flying Wallendas.

On March 22, 1978 Karl Wallenda, at the age of seventy-three, was crossing a tightrope strung between two condominiums in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Midway through his walk the wire swayed and bucked and he fell to the ground one hundred and twenty-one feet below.

When my father filmed Rick Wallenda he was retracing the same fatal tightrope walk that his father left uncompleted. The video’s vertigo imagery and simple narrative highlight the strange act of retracing the steps of those who have gone before us.

Este trabajo es parte de las series de El Archivo.

The Following trata acerca del retorno de los eventos del pasado, tanto metafórica como literalmente.

Un día, después de que mi padre volviera de un curso del FBI sobre fotografía y video vigilancia, estaba practicando sus nuevas habilidades desde el balcón de su departamento, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, a un funambulista caminando sobre un cable. El hombre era Rick Wallenda, nieto de Karl Wallenda. Karl Wallenda estableció el circo escénico familiar The Flying Wallendas (Los Wallenda voladores).

El 22 de marzo de 1978, Karl Wallenda murió cruzando una cuerda floja colgada entre dos condominios en San Juan, Puerto Rico. A la mitad de su camino, el alambre se balanceó y se torció, con lo que Karl Wallenda cayó al suelo desde 37 metros de altura.

Cuando mi padre filmó a Rick Wallenda éste estaba trazando el mismo camino fatal de equilibrista que su abuelo dejó incompleto. El imaginario del vértigo en el video y la narrativa simple enfatizan el extraño acto de volver a caminar sobre los pasos de aquellos que se han ido antes que nosotros.

The Following, presented in Marso Gallery, 2014.

A series of 6 digital prints from video stills was made from the video The Following.

108 cm x 43 cm // 42.5 in x 17 in

Edition of 3

The Following No. 2, 43 x 108 cm.
virginia-colwell-following-still-1
The Following No. 4, 43 x 108 cm.
The Following No. 5, 43 x 108 cm.
The Following No. 6, 43 x 108 cm.