Adam Frelin

DIVINER

video / installation
18-minutes / various materials
2009

While an artist-in-residence at Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Nebraska I shot a short film, part fiction and part documentary, with a mentally-disabled man who was obsessed with meteorology. That summer's tumultuous weather (tornadoes, floods, thunderstorms, and hurricanes) provided a backdrop for Joe, the film's protagonist, to invoke his idiosyncratic manner of forecasting. While the narrative follows his attempt to describe dramatic weather cycles, Joe also reveals to the viewer differing means for dealing with uncontrollable forces in our lives.

After the film version of "DIVINER" was finished, Bemis Center offered to fund an exhibition, as well as a published book, about the project. Because many props were created and found during the shooting of the film, it was a natural extension to explore creative ways to turn them into an art installation. In the exhibition "DIVINER" reveals and reinvents several moments within the story line, creating a room-sized experience equivalent to walking through the film. The editing and composition of the film parallels the loose, psychic connection between the objects in the room, allowing for many potential hooks for the viewer.

"DIVINER" the book is available at Printed Matter in New York, and Art Metropole in Toronto.