Common Uncommon, single channel video, 5:45, 2009

Common Uncommon looks at what might be common in one culture and strange in another. Sounds and images are explored by slowing down the playing speed until the common and understood becomes uncommon. The sound of a hammer mill powered by a stream and crushing the ingredients used in the production of porcelain, blends into the sound of fireworks when speeded up. Fireworks, very common in China, create a cacophony loud enough to set off a motorcycle alarm. The incendiary image of celebration fades into the mesmerizing spiral of a porcelain slip mixer. This rotating apparition gives way to the machinery that produces and flattens a mattress being made on the street in Jingdezhen on a dry sunny day. This is followed by another spiraling image of clay being mixed in an industrial bread dough mixer in Denmark, only to be replaced by the sound of the hammers…