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Titles by Peggy Ahwesh
- 73 Suspect Words
- Beirut Outtakes
- Bethlehem
- From Romance to Ritual
- Heaven's Gate
- Martina's Playhouse
- Nocturne
- Philosophy in the Bedroom
- She Puppet
- Strange Weather
- The Blackest Sea
- The Color of Love
- The Deadman
- The Falling Sky
- The Fragments Project
- The Scary Movie
- The Star Eaters
- The Third Body
- The Vision Machine
- Warm Objects
The Blackest Sea
Collaging appropriated CGI-animated clips from the Taiwanese news outlet TomoNews, The Blackest Sea juxtaposes the sky and sea as primordial phenomena against the anxious, bureaucratic features of modern human life. Hundreds of fish die and float to the top of the ocean due to pollution and rising temperatures; a deep-sea diver discovers a ceramic pot on the ocean floor; Syrian refugees flee across the ocean in tight-packed quarters, and a group of surfers spot the great white whale. By recontextualizing apocalyptic footage that is at once hyperrealistic and surreal, Ahwesh magnifies the ever-shifting relationship between news documentations of current events and the circumstances that produce them. Writes Peggy Ahwesh: “My intention is to force the source material to point back to itself and lay bare the gap between that sketchy cartoon world and reality.”
Music: Passacaglia, for Organ and Strings, K. 11 by Ellis B. Kohs. Images: Taiwanese Animators, News Direct and Tomonews US.
