True Life Adventures

For Earth Day, Diana Thater is sharing for the first time online ‘True Life Adventures’, a short film initially created for ‘Art on theMart’ in Chicago in Fall 2018. The work foregrounds core tenets that have shaped the artist’s practice for three decades: her pioneering approach to video installation, and the impact of human beings on the lives of other species. The film is comprised of footage of wild animals living in the Chyulu hills near Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya. Per the artist, ‘The work is not narrative and linear – it is simultaneous – with three images on the screen at once, all moving in different directions. The accompanying soundtrack, produced by T. Kelly Mason, was recorded live in Kenya and helps tell the peaceful story of elephants, zebras and giraffes in their native habitat. It serves to further realize this portrayal of endangered species who live their everyday lives on the brink of extinction.’