There’s something of the fever dream in Gerald Slota’s videos. They hit you with their strange dream logic, a barrage of images, movement, songs. But like most dreams, they linger in your memory: raising questions, telling unlikely truths, making us think about what it means to create anything, to be human, to live in this strange world in which time passes so absurdly. We were glad to have the chance to ask him a few questions about his work in this flash-fiction interview.

Lola

Magpies: This one had me thinking about the way we make connections between things we see, whether or not they may be related. Is he really running towards her?

Slota: I love found film footage because there’s no context and it becomes my story to re-create. Just the image of her was such an amazing gesture and stuck in my brain for a long time. But it needed an ending, and then I found the man in another video and thought perfect … slowed up the footage and I think it makes the viewer wonder what’s next. And I still wasn’t ready to post till I found the song — a remake of “Lola” by a girl punk band from London circa 1977, and I thought the lyrics sung by a woman makes it more interesting. 

Cow

Freshman year of college a boy asked me, “Why cows?” It was a memorable question. So, for you I would ask, a) why cows? And b) what’s a question you will always remember being asked? Not one of the big important ones, just a memorable one?

I stumbled upon the cow found footage and thought, why would a person spend money on film just to project it in that era?  So, love the song and it all came together. But my sister called the night I worked on it and asked how was my day … I was too embarrassed to say I was scotch taping my laptop to make eyeballs to match up with a cow at my age. So the question about my daily day could be memorable. 

Soggy painting

Many kitsch works of art seem designed to evoke a certain emotion, but instead provoke a sadness or annoyance (in me, at least). A sogginess. How do you feel about kitschy art and nostalgia in all its many guises?

I live in art housing so the garbage always has very interesting things. That painting was sad to me because it was in the rain and throwed out … what if it was a long-lost famous painting/ kitschy?

The Room

I love the matching and unmatching of patterns, shapes, and directional movement here. In your videos is anything pre-conceived or is it more a question of finding what you find and giving it a rhythm and cohesion? 

This video is 99% still photos that I took in LA this year so many patterns/shapes because of that and only came together months after the visit because I missed it there.

Side note … the room/door was creepy in my mind only the place was beautiful and spiritual.

Wrench

What is the method and the madness here? 

Easy one… got a 3D pen for a gift played with it one night and shot the video then realized I got bored and haven’t used it since …. But maybe again?

Haircut

There is something beautifully Bresson-like in this, in the shots of hands and the attention to gesture. It also made me think about the absurdity of maintaining ourselves from day to day and week to week. Cutting hair or fingernails. And there’s a strange sense of loss with the hair clippings finding their own way. It’s lonely and absurd to be human, but a shared ritual can put that in a different perspective. Why do you record the things that you do? Why do you make videos?

Yes, totally absurd. It was my first haircut after Covid [happy I still had hair] and knew I wanted to vid it, so asked her if she was cool with me shooting while cutting. She agreed but said this was the first in the history of her career that someone asked to do this. So it’s surreal and absurd to be human and do stupid shit every day just to survive! But on a brighter note, I finally used a Pavement song.

MacDowell

Noose or halo? 

Interesting you pick this video I was honored to get the fellowship at MacDowell [NH] but at the time it was right after my first solo show in Soho at the R/M gallery [was cocky] and didn’t realize how important it was so I just enjoyed … swam in wonderful lakes, met a lot cool artists, and drank a lot of wine. But my last week I was like, holy shit I guess I have to create work. So I banged out a lot of photographs and filled the walls of my studio.

So was a noose then and a grateful halo now!

Cindy

What’s the story behind this video?

Was at a party on a rooftop/patio and the door just reminded of that famous Cindy Sherman photo from her untitled film still series. So I returned and had a friend dress like the image and shot fast and then waited for the perfect song to finish it.

Still Life Painting

Do you really believe that nobody ever called Pablo Picasso an asshole, or some equivalent, because I highly doubt that. And why are dead flowers so sad? 

I wish someone did 🙂 funny I don’t see dead flowers that I drew [not very good at realist flowers] but the stems were from tomato vines.

Elevator

How did you make this? How did you choose the quotes?

Great to finish up on this one!

Been staring at this elevator in Paterson Nj when I go Food shopping, and the elevator always has empty poster frames and graffiti. So my first thought was to make an homage to Keith Harring, but I needed another edge — something from another POV about art, and I found some cool Charles Bukowski Quotes ……. So true!

Gerald Slota is a fine artist and photographer who has been widely exhibited across the US and abroad. He has had solo shows at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY, and Langhans Galerie in Prague, Czech Republic, as well as been shown at Recontres D’ Arles in Arles, France. Slota has had multiple solo exhibits at Ricco/Maresca Gallery in NYC and is represented by the Robert Berman Gallery in Los Angeles. His images have appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times Magazine, Vice, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Harper’s, and Scientific America, as well as in BOMB, Artforum, ARTNEWS, Art in America, and Aperture. Gerald Slota has garnered many awards including a Polaroid 20”x24” Grant, a MacDowell Artist Residency, and a Mid-Atlantic Fellowship Grant in 2001, 2009 and 2021. Slota’s photographs are in collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY.

See more of Slota’s work at his website and on Instagram @geraldslota.