JOSEPH HERRING

BermudaTriangleLoveTriangle is a performative event that is simultaneously re-presented and re-contextualized on the walls of the exhibition space in the form of a multi-paneled video projection. The projection re-interprets the live-action into a multi-framed narrative that functions like a moving image comic book. The live-action/live-projection is juxtaposed with both pre-recorded action and pre-existing found footage to form new critical content.

BermudaTriangleLoveTriangle focuses around a 1930's era sailor, his girlfriend, and a rival suitor.  While the similarities between Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Bluto are obvious, the allegory of their relationship in the performance serves to illustrate communicative differences between Thimble Theatre, the E.C. Segar comic strip that introduced the Popeye character; Popeye, the Fleisher Studio cartoon; and finally Popeye, the Robert Altman film about the sailor.  The critical differences in communication between the comic strip, the cartoon, and the live-action film are explored in the translation of the various pro-filmic performances into the projected image.