Photographs by Emily Kim
Phil Solomon’s installation “American Falls” is currently showing in the IDEA Space at the Cornerstone Arts Center. Solomon, a professor of film studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, worked on American Falls for 12 years, receiving the commission from a Washington D.C. museum in 2000 and finishing in 2012.
Solomon’s installation projects a succession of images and sounds, but not in the traditional narrative form. Solomon says he doesn’t have a clear message he’s trying to communicate, otherwise, “I’d probably just say it.” He uses film because the metaphors it presents “act in ways where words fail. There’s no way for me to describe the images in this work with words.” Instead of a message, he says, “There are some inferences I’m making that have to do with the quality of the image, and also the juxtaposition of the image.”
American Falls “is about the fallen,” said Solomon. “It’s a memorial to the dead.” Which is fitting, as the piece was commissioned by a museum in Washington, D.C., a city with an abundance of memorials to the fallen. The piece also raises questions about some of the foundations of American society, such as democracy and capitalism, and how they relate to the fallen.
Solomon uses a unique style to communicate his meaning. Most noticeable in the installation is a triptych. A triptych has three screens, which allows for the juxtaposition of images he believes can make meaning together. These images and short videos probably don’t look like anything you’ve seen in real life; that’s because he treats them with a solution he invented that distorts the image. It is profound and difficult to describe, and in itself warrants a look at the film.
“At one point I juxtapose a hand holding a old fashion pistol,” said Solomon, “and you just see the hand on the ground, and you see a ten dollar bill [on a different screen], with Alexander Hamilton’s picture on it. And so there’s a reference to capitalism and the treasury and Alexander Hamilton.” This relates back to the inferences mentioned above because, “my piece is called American Falls. It’s about the fallen. It’s basically a memorial to the dead. If you go further into your research you would see, ‘Ah! Alexander Hamilton is an American who fell.’ You might know he’s an American who fell in a duel with Aaron Burr. It’s not maybe immediately apparent, but on the third viewing it might be apparent.” At another point in the installation, Solomon juxtaposes the image of George Washington with that of a slave. “We’re all used to thinking of George Washington as not even a human being. And the image melts. And then I show you an African American slave. Now that’s a simplistic juxtaposition. But my God is that profound. You tell me how that’s possible by our contemporary morals and understanding of slavery. It seems impossible to imagine, but it was.”
Solomon distorts both the images and accompanying sounds to question our illusion of clarity. “I express my own doubt in the iconography [of American history],” he said. “For example, I show John Kennedy. What do I know about John Kennedy? I only know the images I was given by the news, by the press. I don’t know John Kennedy. But I know the media image of John Kennedy.” The distortion makes the subject of the image ambiguous, which, to Solomon, demonstrates the ambiguity of American history, and consequently the ambivalence he feels towards the fallen, such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt. “We have come to learn that even someone like FDR, who’s a hero to me, was a complex man,” said Solomon. “There are historians who say FDR knew about Pearl Harbor and let it happen. And as much as I love what I know about FDR, he also didn’t let the Jews in the country when they wanted to come in. Again, every single figure in the film has ambiguities and ambivalences, which I have complex feelings about.”
American Falls depicts images from every period in American history. It is unlikely someone will understand every reference the installation makes, which Solomon hopes will lead them to researching whatever depiction was unclear and realizing its complexity.
Instead of presenting a message, Solomon asserts he is asking a question: “Whither America? Where is America going?” The ambiguity and the juxtapositions of the portrayals in the installation force one to question the prevailing conceptions of American society, which raises the question: Is the United States going in the direction we think it is?
American Falls will be on campus through Dec. 1, with a lunch and lecture with Solomon on Dec. 2. It will play on a loop from 1 to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday in the IDEA Space.