More than a year into the pandemic, deep-seated feelings of isolation, alienation, anxiety, and loneliness, are pervasive. Cynthia’s hypochondria, which in the recent past may have been dismissed as a quirk, has crept into the examination of our own daily activities. The titular work of the exhibition, The Invisible Seventh is the Mystic Column, 2021, shot and edited by Moulton while in quarantine, picks up where Cynthia’s journey of self-investigation left off in Whispering Pines 10. In 2021 we, as audience members, are more clearly attuned to the eccentric coping mechanisms of Moulton’s persona, as they are now uniquely familiar to us. In The Invisible Seventh is the Mystic Column, Cynthia turns her attention to exercise and breathing techniques in an attempt to counteract vulnerability. However, she is betrayed, inhaling invasive home decor objects, similar in shape and size to human organs, which take up residence in her body.
Using video, sculptural installation and performance, American artist Shana Moulton has developed a distinctive psychic and aesthetic realm anchored around her alter ego, Cynthia. Collectively titled Whispering Pines – the name taken from the mobile-home park for senior citizens near Yosemite that her parents ran – these episodic videos, begun in 2002, chart Cynthia’s personal tribulations. They also reflect on the relationship between consumerism and the search for spirituality.
In this edition of Moulton's narrative series, the artist's character Cynthia suffers from Restless Leg Syndrome, and seeks relief in pharmaceutical ads on TV and in health magazines. In a domestic world enlivened with animated dance and mystic poetry (written and read by poet John Coletti), Cynthia finds relief in the healing mineral AION A, discovered by Swiss artist Emma Kunz.
This video was featured in "Acting Out," the group exhibition guest-curated by Erin Riley-Lopez at the Bronx River Art Center from December 3, 2010 - January 8, 2011. The artists deliberately perform—in front of a camera, before an audience, or both— acting out their narratives and characters. Costuming, location, and props, among other elements, play an especially important role in these videos, as they provide the foundation for the entire scenario that is performed by the artists. Regardless of their strategies—which range from quiet interior reflection without monologue or dialogue, to more assertive questioning and discussion—they all share a keen interest in tackling normative societal structures, traditional hierarchical roles, and what it means to be a woman.
My entire practive is a form of consumption. I hit my stride as soon as I realized that shopping, home decorating, and all of the television and video games I’d consumed as a child could be a source of inspiration rather than something to disown. Today, my generative consumption extends to Google image searches or SkyMall browsing.
Shana Moulton is a media artist who explores contemporary anxieties through her filmic alter ego, Cynthia. Based in New York, Shana uses colourful psychedelic performance to describe pathetic situations with humorous surrealism.
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