nickel for a silver screen

2022, 00:11:15 loop, HD video, surround sound

installation for a cinema 

This video of a nickel slowly being melted was created for a site-specific installation at Pittsburgh's now-defunct Melwood Screening Room, once home to Pittsburgh Filmmakers. 

The work references the city’s cinematic history. In 1905, Pittsburgh was home to the world’s first ‘Nickelodeon’ – or nickel theater. Though other theaters had shown films, Nickelodeons set the precedent for the modern cinematic experience. Nickel theaters helped to establish cinema as a medium for the working class, cementing its role as a place and form for the people. 

Through acts of material transformation and cinematic alchemy, nickel for a silver screen reanimates the theatre through immersive, hand-crafted surround sound (crafted from foley) and cosmic visuals evocative of celestial supernovas. Playing with the shift in the scale of the projected nickel, the work harkens to cinema’s historic relationship with magic & illusion.