“And I feel Fine,” a film by Kate Walker, an associate professor in the Department of Art, Design and Visual Studies, won honorable mention at the Rocky Mountain Biennial at the Museum of Art in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Leah Ollman, a writer whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Art in America and other publications, was the juror of the exhibition, which continues through Sept. 20.
Work by Boise State graduate student Hao Zhang also appears in the exhibition.
In Walker’s film, a group of young friends walks through an urban wasteland at night, headed for Disaster Karaoke at Boise, Idaho’s, original gay bar, the Lucky Dog Tavern. Fragments of archival material including a nuclear energy instructional video, old music videos and weather reports are layered with heartfelt apocalyptic singing in a blend of joyous anxiety.
“And I Feel Fine” includes brief interviews with the performers speaking frankly about their fears, experiences and hopes for the world they will inherit. Homelessness, climate anxiety and systematic disregard for life are some of the stories they tell. Through these anxieties, a sense of optimism persists.
Funding from the Idaho Film Collection and Idaho Commission on the Arts made this project possible.
The Rocky Mountain Biennial features artists from the Intermountain West in all mediums, including installations, ceramics, jewelry, video, photography, sculpture and painting. The exhibition features 58 artists and 106 artworks.
More Walker screenings:
“And I Feel Fine” currently is screening in the online international exhibition curated by the Lisbon based New Art Fest Team.
Walker’s video “Cloudship” (2018), will screen at Los Angeles’ Torrance Art Museum Dark Room exhibition space (currently online) Aug. 29-Sept. 4 as part of the group exhibition Seven Memorials for Humanity Project.