Building 2 / (This Is/Is This) How to Do It
"(This is/Is this) How To Do It" is a four-channel projection installation by Valery Jung Estabrook that explores the landscape of the grieving subconscious. Video performances interpret the various stages of loss into rituals of movement. Inspired by Korean shamanism and the ceremonial use of indigenous psychoactive flowers of the Americas, haunting figures make offerings among creeping botanical tendrils, calling upon the ghosts of the past to emerge and dance beside them. Movement and touch is used to control lights and sounds embedded in the costumes. Augmented by tech-enhanced wearables, the performer’s control extends beyond their body to activate the physical surroundings — an attempt to create a virtual emotional space in which loss can safely be confronted. Futile though it may be, the attempt will be repeated, ritualistically, until peace is attained.