Perhaps we were meant?  To live in breaths that hold life, passion, sorrow, and joy. They opened the door and it all started… Seekago is five experimental films that in their entirety tell a love story of two characters, the Traveler and the Bagged Woman. Each film represents a phase of life, beginning with birth and death, into journey and experience, to love and sacrifice, to survival and community, and finally transcendence into a world beyond.  However, each film in the series also works independently, commenting on areas of human ecology. There is no narration that accompanies the films, but the action, the set, the costume, the sounds, and the camera angles are what tell the story. The viewer sees and understands what is in front of them, but how it plays is mystifying.  The audience loses self as the subconscious starts to attach memory and moments to the sounds and imagery.  SEEKAGO is Breathing, Asphalt, The Chicken and the Coyote, Feast, and Flight.

BR   E  A  THING (2011)

Breathing is a short experimental thriller that is intended to produce a specific emotional state within the viewer. The concept of Breathing is very simple. There are sixteen performers that are sitting on chairs that are on tables, in a grid formation, breathing inside plastic bags. When they inhale, a gap or black hole appears where their mouths are, and when they exhale the bag resumes its original state. The breathing is rhythmic and hypnotic, as if they are sleeping inside their cocoons or pods. As time passes, a shot rings out, one of the bags fills with blood, and the performer dies. There is no disturbance in the breathing of the other pods that are still living.  It is as if it is normal that a life has been taken or a life has been born.  In Breathing we meet the the two main Characters the Traveler and the Bagged Woman.

a s p h a l t (2012)

Asphalt is a life journey; it represents the exploration and experience that one gains through traveling, trying out new ideas, and overcoming obstacles.  Asphalt tells this journey of life through the use of the roads, processions, One-Point Perspective, and intersections, Asphalt works as segue between the world of Breathing and The world of The Chicken and the Coyote.  It is the intersection of the two worlds as the Traveler takes the Bagged Woman from one world to the next. Asphalt is shot as an observational documentary

The CHICKEN and the COYOTE (2012)

The Chicken and the Coyote is a love story and performance piece between a Chicken and a Coyote. When the Coyote reveals himself to the Chicken, there is a moment of fear but the excitement overtakes as they embrace in a passionate dance of love/lust. As the dance climaxes, the Coyote’s instincts overtake him and he devours the Chicken.  The Chicken’s life is not lived in vain, but has been fulfilled by sacrificing herself so that the cycle of life could continue. The Opossum is also a character that has traveled into this world, he is a witness to the love and struggle between the Chicken and the Coyote

F E A S T (2013)

FEAST starts with a shot that pulls back to unveil pockets of birds that have collected to feast on the remains of an animal. Bird masks and wings adorn the performers. Scarcity is abundant and abundance is scarce. All will have food but some will have more scrumptious parts than others. It’s a paralleled world pulling in both the animal and human reactions to the fear of starvation and the will to survive. Eventually all will be fed. With their bellies full, contentment sets in, which results into a beautiful chorus, celebrating life, and each other. FEAST is a commentary on the importance of a healthy ecology by integrating the human relationship with the natural, social, and built environments through the representation of Scavenger bird behavior tactics and human social feeding behaviors.

F l i g h t (2013)

Is the last film in the series of SEEKAGO and is the unity and transcendence of the Bagged Woman and the Traveler.