Synopsis of the Work

Lee… Jackson, 2022-2025

Lee… Jackson is a three-channel video installation. It was filmed at the Green River Cemetery during COVID in the Springs, New York and completed in 2025. Jackson Pollack and his wife Lee Krasner are buried next to each other there. In the foreground of the film is a wind chime made from a single abalone shell along with two metallic tubes that provide the discordant and strident sound score of the work resulting from intermittent gusts of wind that sweeps in from the adjacent bay. In the background are the two gravestones. On the left is Jackson’s and on the right is Lee’s. Jackson’s tomb stone is a massive boulder which rests some 5 meters from that of Lee’s which is smaller. Both are covered with visitation stones left by visitors to show love and respect. Creating an imaginary triangle with them is a small American flag stuck in the ground. At 4:28 the performance artist Lena Chen makes her appearance and begins her performance in which she creates a path of stones linking the two graves. Lena takes the stones from Jackson’s and Lee’s stones and lays them down as a path or bridge between them. In the end, Lee and Jackson are united again in death as they were in life. In front of the screen are two fans on timers set diagonally apart from each other and a abalone shell chime like the one in the video that is set in motion by the two fans. The sound of the chime in the film and that in the gallery space create a somber and dissonant duet.