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[ALEX DA CORTE] This house is a portrait
of the land I live in.
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I thought, "How do I know my life?"
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"How do I know my politics,
how do I know my religion,"
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"how do I know my love?"
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I probably learned it from my family.
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But, mostly I probably learned it from TV.
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If I were to make a portrait of a place,
maybe I would to begin with TV.
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I’ve recycled a bunch of old faces
into some kind of fresh variety show,
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making 57 videos for the
57th Carnegie International in Pittsburgh.
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[ALEX DA CORTE: 57 VARIETIES]
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--Liv, I think it’s cool.
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--Yeah, I think you just let it be loose
and it seems natural.
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--Yeah, this is my favorite costume so far,
Liv.
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When I’m attracted to a certain character,
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it may be just a character that’s misunderstood,
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or a character that has a beautiful color.
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--Yeah, I think that’s pretty beautiful.
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--It’s really beautiful.
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--Let me know when you’re ready and I’m
going to put my leg up.
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I’m going to be sharing this glass of wine
with Oscar,
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but the wine seems to pour indefinitely.
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We’re actually having this drink in a painting
by Patrick Caulfield called "Dining Recess,"
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but used a slight visual trickery where it
seems as though I'm flatter than I actually am.
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--[DIRECTOR] Ready, action.
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--Pouring.
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[DA CORTE] Caroll Spinney, the actor who played
Big Bird
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and Oscar the Grouch up until recently,
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was operating Oscar the Grouch
and he was wearing his Big Bird legs.
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I thought, that’s this beautiful moment
of transition--
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when I think we as a country and as a people
are always transitioning.
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--[DIRECTOR] Alright, awesome!
[CHUCKLES]
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[DA CORTE] In these videos,
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I flatten the hierarchy to kind of
take away maybe the privilege,
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or the authority,
that some of these characters may have had
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and confuse them a little bit.
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There’s this sort of fluidity that occurs
where
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you can take any disparate thing
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and link them together,
and they’ll tell this new story.
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I live in Philadelphia
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and in my research, I was reading
a lot of Ginsberg’s "Fall of America."
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Coincidentally Ginsberg is in
a music video that Bob Dylan made
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called "Subterranean Homesick Blues."
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I thought, how strange that
Bob Dylan is making this song
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about the sign of the times in the late 60s,
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and fifty years later,
maybe this is a similar moment,
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in need of some empathetic conversation.
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And maybe if I use his words and
pair them with my images
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I might make sense of America.
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[Distorted electric guitar plays "Taps"]
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The witch is totally misunderstood.
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A house landed on her sister.
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That’s sad.
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I would be upset too.
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Dorothy, she’s just a boring white girl
with some problems.
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Where the witch is an interesting green person
that has a serious story behind her.
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--[DIRECTOR] 5-4-3-2-1, playback.
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[LeAnn Rimes’s "Blue" plays]
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♪ Blue ♪
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♪ Oh, so lonesome for you ♪
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♪ Why can't you be blue over me ♪
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♪ Blue ♪
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♪ Oh, so lonesome for you ♪
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♪ Tears fill my eyes till I can't see ♪
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[DA CORTE] I always think of this science
project I did when I was younger
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about color and how it affects your mood.
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What does blue make you feel?
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What does green make you feel?
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All emotions are interesting--
and hot and exciting.
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I'm not afraid of them.
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--Thanks, Gabs,
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--For the seventeen thousand hours of work
to make those shoes!
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--Those shoes should just get wrapped up
and put in a safe
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--because they’re really special.
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All of the people that work with me are friends.
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It’s a big family.
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--Shannon has worked all over the world.
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--She’s from Philly.
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--We just do it a little different here.
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--We do it a little more dirty here.
[LAUGHS]
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We as a studio all really value material.
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Everyone went to school for printmaking,
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or sculpture, or working with neon, or sewing.
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I grew up working in a meditative way
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and having those love hours go into the objects.
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--I think of that really great
Mike Kelley piece,
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--"More Love Hours Than Can Ever Be Repaid,"
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--and thinking about crocheting or the unseen
labor.
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--Oh yeah, that’s great!
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--[WOMAN] Yeah, totally worth it.
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[GROUP LAUGHS]
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--[DA CORTE] Cut.
Was that better?
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--Hi, give me five.
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--What up?
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--Hi, how are you?
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--I'm making all these videos!
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--It’s so soft, right?
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--[NEPHEW] Yeah, it’s soft!
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--[DA CORTE] It’s so soft!
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My family is quite large.
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I’m one of 27 grandkids.
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There’s 28 great grandkids.
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So it’s quite a big family.
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["Pink Panther Theme" plays]
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My whole family are house painters,
including my brother.
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So I had this idea to paint this
large rose wall pink.
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--[BROTHER] I’ll jump on the ladder and
spray everything,
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--and then you just spray the last little
[WHISTLES] at the end.
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My grandmother made quilts and dollhouses
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and did a lot of handywork.
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So the lattice covered with roses is sort
of like
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a beautiful metaphor for my grandmother.
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If her life was a lattice and the roses were
the people that she touched in her life.
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My family is all I have.
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My family is everything to me.
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["Light of a Brand New Morning"
by Dolly Parton plays]
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♪ It's been a long dark night ♪
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♪ And I've been a waiting for the morning ♪
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♪ It's been a long hard fight ♪
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♪ But I see a brand new day a' dawning ♪
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♪ I've been looking for the sunshine ♪
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--[DIRECTOR] Alright, cut!
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I’ve always been a homebody.
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If I was outside, I’d be in my backyard.
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The house was a way to
protect me from the world.
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When I was in undergrad,
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I would spend a lot of time
in this one particular diner,
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drawing and eating a lot of
French fries and ketchup.
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The diner had warm-white neon
around the periphery of the whole space.
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It still was a barrier that kept me in
and everything else out.
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The neon just floats.
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These words just float in the black void of
night.
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I think it evokes a kind of dream space.
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It’s a bug zapping effect,
where it sort of pulls people in.
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When someone has entered
I’ve seen a whole gamut of feelings, felt.
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I think that’s good to feel desire,
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or disgust, or fear,
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or overwhelming joy.
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Mr. Rogers was a huge part of Pittsburgh.
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As is ketchup.
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And I love ketchup.
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Mr. Rogers's house reminded me
of my grandparents house.
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His project was deeply about empathy.
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Like, "Hey neighbor, lets talk about difference,"
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"let’s talk about divorce, let’s talk
about anger,
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let’s talk about assasination."
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He wasn’t righteous,
he was just asking questions,
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and trying to understand
what do we make of this difference,
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and how do we move forward.
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["Light of a Brand New Morning"
by Dolly Parton plays]
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♪ I can see the light of a clear blue morning ♪
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♪ Everything's gonna be alright ♪
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♪ Everything's gonna be alright ♪
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♪ Everything's gonna be alright ♪
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♪ It's gonna be okay ♪
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All of those things are deeply important
and exciting.
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That’s why we make art,
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to propose that these feelings should
come to the surface and be harvested.
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[FAMILY LAUGHS]
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--[DA CORTE] I think that’s great
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--[NIECE] You should keep it!
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--[WOMAN] It’s what Fred would have done.
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♪ Everything's gonna be alright ♪
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♪ Everything's gonna be alright ♪
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[MUSIC FADES OUT]
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--[DIRECTOR] We got it, we got it.
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[APPLAUSE]