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Florida consists of video, sound and photographs produced while on a residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts and during subsequent visits to several small towns in rural central Florida. Conceived as an extended meditation on an imaginary Edenic site where people essentially go to die, Florida’s audio track is comprised of interviews conducted with elderly residents of nursing homes and retirement communities in the region. These tend toward the personal and particular (specific memories, desires, regrets) but also touch on larger philosophical topics as participants muse on the nature of paradise and death. Each voice is disembodied yet distinct; in the video, the individuals are never seen. Instead, the projection features a series of meandering long takes, shot in Steadicam, of the Floridian landscape — its lush savannas, dense jungles, and steamy swamps. Florida uses traditional documentary strategies as a point of departure, but the installation’s sound and image loop independently from one another, producing a deliberate non-syncing reminiscent of amnesia or déjà vu.
