Bitta
Bitta (2022) is an 11-channel sound and video installation comprised of eleven hand-held videos shot on Venetian vaporetti, focused on the hands of the mariners who expertly cast and tie off the mooring rope to the cleat (bitta in Italian) on the boat's bulwark. The audio is mixed and played back to contrast the loud cracking sound of the tensed ropes pulling against the dock with the low rumbling ambience of boat motors, passengers, and canals. Repeated hundreds of times each day, this gesture connects the everyday and the iconic throughout this city of endless fluidity. The eleven asynchronous loops create an ever-changing polyrhythm suspended in an undulating drone, punctuated by short blink-length close-ups of baroque architectural details that mimic frozen waves.
Presented at the 2022 Faculty Sabbatical Triennial Exhibition at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, August-December 2022.