Donna Conlon “Grandpa”

Fridman Gallery

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Fridman Gallery presents Donna Conlon’s short film Grandpa (2015), the artist’s second exhibition with the gallery, following Invisible Hands (with Jonathan Harker) in 2014. The gallery’s black-box screening room will give full effect to the film’s rich cinematography and sound.

Grandpa pivots around a stream-of-consciousness monologue by Conlon’s father-in-law, afflicted with an advanced stage of Alzheimer’s or dementia. The steady, meditative flow of his speech, uninterrupted by intonations, pauses or punctuation, is set against a lush ocean scape and the relentless sound of lapping waves. The video follows the lead of the audio, surfacing and plunging as the voice lapses in and out of glancing moments of relative lucidity. The work is a portrait of a unique mind, unknowingly transgressing social conventions in favor of sheer expression.