Newer Work

2023, Two-channel HD video; color, stereo sound, 08:45 minutes

Most religions and philosophies have much to offer on how to live and what happens after we die, yet almost none have any guidance for the moment of transition. Which is odd, because no event will be more momentous in our existence. But is preparing for this even possible?

Inspired by a few near-death experiences of my own, I decided to find out. One video channel explores anticipated/peaceful passing, while the other confronts the unexpected/violent. Each episode is comprised of the most common forms of death experienced in the modern developed world.

While I strove for accuracy in experiencing the symptoms and conditions, the work is less concerned with “acting” and more with exploring what emotions or thoughts may arise – both for me and the viewer.

2024, Clear single-use plastic, dimensions variable

"Too Many Fish in the Sea" is an immersive installation of a coral reef environment made entirely of single-use, disposable clear plastic: soda bottles, salad containers, bubble wrap, packing tape, plastic straws, etc. From giant squid to schools of fish, sharks, crabs, coral and oysters, all are sourced used from the New York environment (and properly sterilized). The various fish and plants that comprise this reef are delicate, yet their components will live on the environment for eons. Like the plastic microparticles they're comprised of, they are everywhere in the installation, but elusive to see clearly (but also quite beautiful).

It's no secret that single-use plastic now overwhelms our seas and oceans, and threatening nearly all underwater ecosystems. Giant islands of plastic float in the Pacific. Microplastics contaminate every large body of water, even the canals of Venezia, and are now found within the fish and shellfish we consume. As a society, we know the situation, yet we don’t always consider our own use of plastics, or the volume we unwittingly contribute to the issue. One bottle doesn't seem like much, but when it becomes a school of fish, the impact is clearer.

2021, 4K video, 2 channel, color, synch sound

"Throwing Money at the Problem" is a two-channel HD video that can be displayed single-screen. It examines what happens when you literally throw money ($10,000 USD) at the "problem."

2021, Four-channel HD video, color, sync sound. Dimensions variable.

Further Discourse explores the tensions within human modes of communication, utilizing a variety of methods and ideas: electronic reproduction, factory-made and hand-written; eternal and temporal; as well as physical, digital and mental (ephemeral). Four videos each display a different sketchbook in which every page (94 per book) has been inscribed with an ambiguously triggering phrase. Each phrase is hand-written in erasable pencil. The attempt to match the framing dimensions of each book within the videos was merely guessed at, as well as the timing of each page turn, with an aim of arriving at a total length of eight minutes. Since no measurements or timers were used, all framings and each page turn were intuitively derived.

The result is standardization with human variations, creating an endless dialectic, because all videos are different lengths. Eventually, every combination of pages onscreen will be reached: 78,074,896 possible variations. But this still excludes the viewer and what they bring to the dialectic. How do they interpret each statement? Because the monitors are also configured in a square, the viewer naturally takes the place of at least one book at all times, privileging some ideas over others, no matter what direction s/he looks. The discourse never fully ends or repeats.

© Copyright K. Frech. All rights reserved.

2019, looped Three-channel HD video for smartphones, color, stereo sound, 04:30 minutes

Partly inspired by Bruce Nauman’s “Please Pay Attention Please,” and reimagining it for the Internet age, PLEASE PAY ATTENTION suggests an in-store mobile phone display, and explores the tension between our newest commodity, attention, and the “context collapse” in meaning that occurs on digital screens, small and large.

A principle of modern economics is that human attention is itself a fungible commodity, as valuable as oil or electricity. Thus, people try to garner the attention of strangers as a means of earning income and status. Like all commodities, attention becomes more valuable as it grows scarce. Attention deficit disorders continue to rise.

In 2008, Cultural Anthropologist Michael Wesch use the term “context collapse,” referring to You Tube vloggers, describing it as “…an infinite number of contexts collapsing upon one another into that single moment of recording. The images, actions, and words captured by the lens at any moment can be transported to anywhere on the planet and preserved … for all time. The little glass lens becomes the gateway to a black hole, sucking all of time and space – virtually all possible contexts – in upon itself.”

These images and sounds continually collide and overlap in unanticipated ways, presenting a curated chaos despite our attempts to present a cohesive, well-ordered self.

© Copyright K. Frech. All rights reserved.

2019, Single-channel HD video, color, mono sound, 05:10 minutes

Commune: (1) to communicate intensely. (2) The smallest community unit in many European countries.

In COMMUNE, a grid of nine people communicates with the viewer non-verbally while interacting with others via their smartphones. They are at once together yet separate, intense but removed, expressive yet occluded, connected to us and to the unseen people they interact with, yet also separated by the same technologies (video and smartphones) that facilitate this communication. Their arrangement and body language, as their collective gaze focuses downward to the texts they read while also projecting their thoughts into the ether, is reminiscent of a church choir with their hymnals.

© Copyright K. Frech. All rights reserved.