Street Vendor

2012, 6:19 min, color, sound

Here Jacobs documents a New York street vendor, taking a short interaction between the vendor and a customer and protracting it into a strobing, throbbing, pulsing meditation on movement and light. Reminiscent of a sequence in his earlier iconic film Orchard Street, which depicts street vendors with the precision and repetition of a visual inventory, here Jacobs focuses on just one vendor, abstracting his movement and yet preserving it in extraordinary detail, taking his familiar presence to its aesthetic extreme as he and his truck move forward and back, shrink and widen, and rotate in surreal, orb-like motion.

WARNING: This work contains throbbing light. Should not be viewed by individuals with epilepsy or seizure disorders.

Video: Ken Jacobs. Assisted by Antoine Catala, Justin Madden, and Nisi Jacobs.