Nicole Hewitt
looped single screen video installation, color, shot on 16 mm film transferred to Mini DV, 120′, 2002.g.

Towards the end of shooting of her film In Between, in the summer of 2001, Nicole Hewitt came across a discarded notebook containing on one side a diary and on the other a love story called ‘GLORIA’. The notebook belonged to a then fifteen-year-old girl.

The love story GLORIA was obviously written under the influence of the South American soaps ruling the airwaves in Croatia. It is a childish story full of all too familiar social and formal codes and conventions. The structure of the story contains all the usual elements of a drama, conflict and resolution – evidence of the successful inculcation of dominant narrative forms.

GLORIA became the basis for a video questioning cinematic, dramatic and cultural conventions. Naoko Takahashi, a London based Japanese video artist, plays the main character, Gloria. Naoko Takahashi pronounces the lines in Croatian (a language she does not understand) and this is translated in English subtitles. The piece was shot on location in Zagreb, making the incongruence between the main character and her settings more apparent.

The work consists of the bi-lingual extensive preparations of the film crew for the shooting of each shot, Naoko learning her lines, the crew giving directions, etc, this information is available only through sound, while the screen is black. When all the preparations are done and Naoko delivers her lines, the image finally appears, occasionally in synch and lasting only as long as the dialogue lasts. The image lasts a few seconds, while the preparations and rehearsals last a few minutes.

The piece needs to be projected large in a black out space. The audio needs to go through an amplifier and the pieced should not be surrouonded by other sound works.

direction, editing, script, production: Nicole Hewitt photography: Bruno Bahunek featuring: Naoko Takahashi, Siniša Ilić, Tvrtko Jurić, Ana Hušman, Bruno Bahunek, Nicole Hewitt