Homage à 2006
Commission for Accademia Filarmonica Romana, Rome Italy, May/June 2006
Both Homage à and The Governess are context-specific works that use the horror film genre as a cultural referent. Homage à is concerned with the work of Dario Argento, a master of Italian horror films. It combines video with original choral music from the students at the music academy, a new acoustic arrangement of one of Argento’s film scores by the electronic band Goblin, and two original bottled scents: Final Girl and Video Nasty Aroma. Final Girl smells like Ivory soap and VN.A. brings to mind the back room of an old musty video store. The scents, combined with the video and soundtrack suggest a narrative we know so thoroughly it no longer needs to be made explicit. The installation is meant to challenge the viewer to examine his/her role as viewer/consumer of the horror genre.
