Desiree Holman
Project Description
Inspired by New Age, science fiction, and technology culture, Sophont in Action explores these movements by treating fringe fantasies as reality. This fantastical story will be a wordless, experimental multi-channel video (with the potential for concurrent live performance) set to music. As a New Works Alumni, it is meaningful on many levels to return to Headlands to shoot a significant portion of the video footage for my project Sophont in Action. The lush landscape of the Marin Headlands inspired ideas for the work, and there are several important historical and cultural threads in Marin County that have informed the work—New Age ideologies like EST seminars, conscious capitalism, the back to the land movement, etc. By shooting this sequence at Headlands I will be able to complete a large and vital portion of the video, which will bring me closer to realizing the full project potential.
Artist Statement
My process involves elaborate productions with multiple participants and are produced over an extended period. The results encompass both traditional gallery works, like paintings and sculptures, as well as video installations, live performance, and public artworks. The diversity of my output mirrors my interests in creating worlds within which the work exists, as well as my interest in working within and also beyond the white cube and traditional objet d’art.
As a project based artist working thematically, I focus on a project for 2-3 years, creating fantastical worlds, seeded by research. I see myself as an artist-cum-armchair anthropologist. As such, I spend a significant amount of my time researching ideas in fields from which I have no formal background. The resulting projects present a rich expansiveness of thought and methodologies. This process evokes query and plurality, rather than inert opinion or belief.
Alumni New Works is a project-based award program that supports the cutting edge contemporary creative practices of Headlands Alumni, and provides impactful resources toward the development and completion of a project.
Selected Video
Sophont in Action, di Rosa, 6/28/2014 from Desiree Holman on Vimeo.
The Indigo and The Ecstatic: A Motion to the Future (2013) from Desiree Holman on Vimeo.