Refuse is a word that refers not only to what we discard, but also to defiant acts that can catalyze change. Shot in Nepal, this video blends experimental and documentary techniques to reshape our understanding of the landscape and labor of trash-pickers. The layered, cinematic richness of the video belies its disturbing content and serves to underscore the indomitable power of the human spirit.

Single channel

7:16

Denise Marika, video & (((::OFTHESUN::))), music

Entrainment is an abstract ethnographic video focused on cultural rituals and day-to-day life in Nepal. The video uses shifts in speed and location to underscore the tension between rapid urbanization and time-honored practices that shape social and cultural identity.

Video Installation with Sound

6:47

Denise Marika, video & This is life., music

Arroyo, a landscape created by the use of a 10’ sculptural lens, an aluminum tube through which the natural
phasing of light, water and the horizon line are reflected and recorded. Amplified natural and sonic frequencies
were composed as an electronic call and response between the organic and synthesized soundscapes.

Video Installation with Sound and Photo-Lightbox

20:16

Effaced explores the metaphor of searching and drowning as it relates to body, voice and text. Source material includes a news story of witnesses to a military slaughter of civilians as “the people fled”. The overlay of audio, visuals, stills and text create a fluid dreamscape of abstract narrative associations.

5.1 Surround Sound, Single Channel HD Video Projection 7:48

Denise Marika, video & John Holland, music

Conversations is a sound driven video that reflects upon the fragility, humor, and pain of the human condition. Designed as a projection, the video is punctuated by a series of black frames that periodically plunge the viewer into darkness, disrupting the flow of imagery and immersing them in the sound composition by John Holland. Shot in Cambodia, the video concludes with historic footage of the Cambodian killing fields (Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh).

Three Channel Video Installation/ Three Stereo Channel audio Interactions

“Tracking” is a collaborative video installation by DM, Denise Marika and Dana Moser and was largely influenced by the city of Berlin. “Tracking” reflects on the international condition at the borders separating people from places and events, the threshold where layers of impediments and barriers multiply.

Three Channel Video Installation [play simultaneously]
10′ rearwall projection w/ dual flatscreen side panels

Video loop

Four Channel Video Installation
20” projections

Video loop

Video and braille Installation

Video loop

Video projections and set design

This multimedia opera, a retelling of the Dedalus and Icarus myth, is set on an imaginary Caribbean island. Five singers perform in counterpoint with layers of computer-manipulated 5.0 channel surround sound and multiple video projections. Music by Eric Chasalow ; libretto by F.D. Reeve; video and set design by Denise Marika.

Video Installation for theatre performance

Robert Woodruff joins composer/performer Rinde Eckert to create this music-theatre piece inspired by the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. Video projections serve as an integral component of the play’s environment: Eurydice in the underworld, her pacing figure and gestures caught in the web of massive i-beams and the steel surfaces of the floor and a suspended box. The set was co-designed by Denise Marika and David Zinn.

• Theatre for a New Audience, NYC, December 2-20, 2009
• Hong Kong International Festival, China, February 16, 2007
• Edinburgh Festival, Scotland, Royal Lyceum Theatre, August 25–29, 2007
• Premiered at Zero Arrow Theatre, Boston, MA, March 25 – April 23, 2006

Single channel video
Size variable

Silent Version

Sonic Version [11:22]

Music Compostion by John Mallia

A leg is stretched along the length of exposed tree root. The downed tree trunk and leg are both coated in grey clay, matched in shape, color and form. Slowly the leg moves along the trunk caressing its length. In the silent version it is shown as

Single channel video
Size variable
Video loop

A face buried in dry dirt eats its way to the surface as a gritty crunching sound draws you in.

Video Installation,Aluminum frame floor mirror and video
72″ x 92″ x 12″

Video loop

A projected nude figure crouches amidst the turbulence of demolition. U-shaped steel channels frame the deteriorating urban landscape. The jaws of a crane grab at the body stirring up clouds of dust and debris. Unaffected by the surrounding danger, the woman persists as rubble rains down upon her.

Video Installation, Ash, steel beams and video
75″ x 63 ” x 4″

Video loop

An ankle-deep landscape of ash is contained by massive steel beams laid in a rectangle on the floor.  Projected on the undulating terrain, a woman anoints herself with ash.  The sound of ash rubbing against her bare skin is abrasive. Over time her skin darkens, merging her body with the ashen-grey landscape.