Martin Hurtubise

SHIFT explores the loss associated with movement from one place to another and the loss associated with an intimate experience of death. Death deconstructs. Things fall apart including the sense of a unified self. Ideas of continuity and stability are eroded. Images shot in Scotland, Saskatchewan and Montreal are combined with studio footage to create an associative narrative about an experience for which ordinary language is inadequate.

"Our apartment was one hundred years old, and it was haunted. Friends suggested that we paint a black spot on the ceiling to get rid of the ghost. She wasn't a bad ghost, she was just an old hooker. She kept turning the front hall light on and off, and opening doors for her johns, who came at all hours of the night. She loved sex and she loved parties, so we were forced to have sex and parties all the time to appease her. Other ghosts were also there: immigrants who spoke neither English nor French. They had come from far away, and longed to return to their homelands. Sometimes they sang sad songs. Shimmer started as their story. My grandmother's story, my parents' story and mine got mixed up with theirs along the way." - Nelson Henricks

Human beings define themselves in opposition to both nature and technology. Emission attempts to confound any simplistic analysis of these worn-out dualities. The video comprises eight episodes that are grouped into three acts. The first addresses technology and language. The second implies a breakdown of language and a movement towards being animal. The third envisions a confrontation with our animal nature.