The Soft Epic, or: Savages of the Pacific West

2008, Single-channel composite version of 5-Channel video projection with 5.1 surround soundtrack, continuous loop.

Sound by Ben Vida

The Soft Epic, or; Savages of the Pacific West is a monumental video and audio installation re-visioning historical and contemporary representations of cultural anxiety, and the fluid relationship between History and Cinema—where fact and fiction collapse into each other like the folds of a drawn theater curtain.

Comprised of multiple projections and a commissioned surround soundtrack by Ben Vida, the work synthesizes images and effects from historical panoramas, epic sci-fi and disaster films, and the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch in a fractured, dystopic cityscape dotted with eternal flames and chimeras. Across the expansive, 100-foot-long video projection, Hollywood splendor usurps mythological and historical narrative in service of political authority and social order.