Flora / Watching Out - a trilogy

Flora / Watching Out - a trilogy

Nan Hoover
1985-86, 22:11 min, b&w and color, silent
Flora
Nan Hoover
1985, 9:11 min, color, silent

In Flora, which recalls a Georgia O'Keeffe painting, the petals of a flower form elusive compositions that are transformed with minute changes in light. Carefully composed, this homage to natural form is a study in visual perception.

Watching Out - a trilogy
Nan Hoover
1986, 13 min, b&w, silent

In Watching Out - a trilogy, a high-contrast, close-up image of a woman's face rhythmically dissolves in and out of abstraction. As Hoover builds a thematic and structural tension, the woman's searching, off-screen gaze suggests an enigmatic confinement.

Description

Hoover continues her examination of abstract forms in these two works. In Flora, which recalls a Georgia O'Keeffe painting, the petals of a flower form elusive compositions that are transformed with minute changes in light. Carefully composed, this homage to natural form is a study in visual perception. In Watching Out — a trilogy, a high-contrast, close-up image of a woman's face rhythmically dissolves in and out of abstraction. As Hoover builds a thematic and structural tension, the woman's searching, off-screen gaze suggests an enigmatic confinement. States Hoover, "I use the gesture of watching as a metaphor. I wanted to speak visually about fear or anxiety coming from either the outside — reality — or internally; a subjective fear that is real or imagined."