The Nails
How can we adjust, negotiate and navigate these preconceived notions that influence our realities?
When creating characters for the film, each model was assigned a physical augmentation that altered the expectation and function of their body. In this circumstance, the trait enhanced were their finger nails, straddling the line between performative and natural. Where does something as banal as a fingernail become more than just a part of the body?
Installing this on their persons, the models were given limited direction on what they were meant to portray, instead relying on how this bodily amplification influenced not only their actions, but also their emotions and thought process. This allowed the personas to truly develop unravel and unfold in real time, grounding the film as a mixture of real and fantasy. What does authenticity really mean? Is it about framework, truth or an unknown combination? Is it even important?
KRISTIAN KIRK uses the familiar narrative of the body, and poses it in a way that causes the viewer to consider the relationships and connections that they have between their own and other vessels. Through the modification of these known variables, the opportunity to evaluate our own constructions becomes evident.
The film’s length and narrative sequence makes for an uncomfortable viewing experience due to it’s length. Through this changing of the time, a disjointedness occurs in our behavioral and bodily assumptions. We see these people and we wonder if they are performing, or if this just the way they are. We see the film and wonder if it drawn out on purpose, or if it is actually long.
creative director and production KRISTIAN KIRK
videographer ALEXANDRE HERTOGHE
photographer CHING CHEN
styling ROFF STUDIOS
nails JUAN ALVEAR
hair KIYO IGARASHI
make-up KENTO UTSUBO
performance JOHNNY PETROZZINO & SOPHIE LAMAR
design RORY MACKENZIE ARTHUR
cc PAUL ZOTOV, DANTE, SCOTT & RYAN SCHEUER
studio BEYOND STUDIOS
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