Nina Levitt

1997-1999 [installation documentation, length 3min. 10 sec.]

A meditation on transgression, subjectivity, risk and loss comprised of five elements (3 video projections and 2 audio systems) installed as distinct stations in a darkened room.

Sonar
The sound of a sonar echo permeates the space emitted from a gray metal public address speaker mounted near the ceiling.

Source: digitally created for Gravity.
ceiling mounted PA speaker, amplifier, CD player

Nostalgia
Dancers at The Gateways lesbian bar, London. Video loop comprised of two slow motion sequences: a long shot of a crowd of women dancing; cuts to a close-up of a young couple dancing cheek to cheek.
Source: The Killing of Sister George, 1974, Director: Robert Aldrich.
10' x 8' video wall-projection, LCD video projector, VCR

Spin
Video projection of a sequence of women divers spinning, in slow motion, over a sparkling blue swimming pool. Projected onto a white surface on the floor.

Source: Television coverage of 1996 Summer Olympic Games, Women's Diving Competition.
22' x 26' image, mini video projector, tripod, VCR, vinyl sheet

Wave
Video projection loop of 'the First Woman in Space', Valentina Terechkova, waving and smiling for the camera from her Russian space capsule. Projected onto an opaque Plexiglas screen suspended from the ceiling. Viewers can watch the flickering black & white image from both sides.

Source: Dateline: 1961/62 Into Orbit, produced by ABC News, New Atlantic Productions, 1982.
mini video projector, tripod, VCR, 9' x 13' Plexiglas suspended from ceiling

Aria
Two unhoused audio speakers form a listening station on the wall. The aria Ebben n'andro lontana plays every 2 minutes at low volume (duration = 4:49).

Source: Golden Opera, Decca Record Co., London, 1993, (from the opera La Wally by Alfredo Catalani, sung by Renata Tebaldi).
2, 8' audio speakers, amplifier, CD player

Spatial variations:
This work has been installed in various gallery spaces in both group and solo exhibitions:

30' x 30' [Gallery 400, Chicago]

20' x 50' [Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa]

50' x 45' [Gallery TPW, Toronto]

25' x 18' [Vancouver Art Gallery]

This and other video installations by Nina Levitt are distributed by V/Tape, Toronto.