phantom. menace.
This video was initially part of a sculptural installation, comprised of a barbershop station extracted from Perry’s Newark studio (a former salon) — shelves, mirror and all. In the video, the artist crosses the screen in a shot that reflects where the viewer would have stood in the original installation space at Bridget Donahue Gallery on 99 Bowery. A house re-mix amps up, the mirror-image melts and morphs into an AI montage. The prompts for DALL-E and RunwayML were actual exhibition views as well as the statement “two African American men, one in his 50s and one in his late 20s, stand in the middle of a crowded barber shop and shake hands.” The flood comes and DJ "drops" announce a rapid sequence of this fated meeting. This event may or may not have happened. Don’t you know, don’t, don’t, don’t …. We don’t know. AI is useful here: to conjure an image that Perry cannot do on her own.
Soundtrack: Artist edit of the house mix (composed by Todd Terry) of Meli'sa Morgan cover of "Still in Love," originally by Al Green; Images were made using DALL-E. with several prompts, the main one being: “Two African American men, one in his 50s and one in his late 20s, stand in the middle of a crowded barber shop and shake hands.”
Videos were made with editing software After Effects, Premiere Pro, and AI video generator RunawayML, using video and images shot at Bridget Donahue Gallery by the artist and gallery team, and previous images made with the DALL-E prompts. DJ drops by @donaldthevoice on Fiverr
