A Brief History of Shana Moulton & Whispering Pines | "New York Close Up" | Art21

Should an artist separate herself from the character she creates? In this film, artist Shana Moulton traces the development of her ongoing video and performance series "Whispering Pines" and its central protagonist Cynthia. Shana charts the various ways in which fiction and autobiography meld and diverge in the character of Cynthia, played by the artist herself. The title of the series is an homage to David Lynch's "Twin Peaks" and adopts the name of Shana's childhood home: a trailer park for seniors near Yosemite, California. Featuring video and music from several episodes of "Whispering Pines"—a mix of live action, computer animation, and original songs by Jacob Ciocci and Nick Hallett.

Shana Moulton (b. 1976, Oakhurst, California, USA) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

CREDITS | "New York Close Up" Created & Produced by: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Editor: Mary Ann Toman. Cinematography: Andrew David Watson. Additional Camera: Don Edler & John Marton. Key Grip: John Marton. Sound: Nicholas Lindner. Associate Producer: Ian Forster. Production Assistant: Paulina V. Ahlstrom, Don Edler & Maren Miller. Design: Open. Artwork: Shana Moulton. Additional Photography: Shana Moulton. Music: Jacob Ciocci & Nick Hallett. An Art21 Workshop Production. © Art21, Inc. 2011. All rights reserved.

"New York Close Up" is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Additional support provided by The 1896 Studios & Stages.

For more info: http://art21.org/​newyorkcloseup

[New York Close Up]

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["A Brief History Of Shana Moulton & Whispering Pines"]

I grew up in Oakhurst, California which is somewhere between Fresno and Yosemite.

[Shana Moulton--Artist]

And uh, I grew up in a mobile home park that my parents owned right on the border of the Sierra National Forest.

And it was a senior mobile home park and it was called Whispering Pines.

♪ Good morning to you... ♪

It was a really beautiful place to grow up.

Instead of like playing with the kids on the block I'd go and visit the widow in the trailer and make puzzles with her or...

There was one lady that had a lot of birds in cages and I'd go play with her birds.

[GLASS SHATTERING]

But then, you know, we were like right on the, you know... it bordered the forest so I'd just go off into the forest in a...you know, and then hang out with the trees and so...

I spent a lot of time alone in the woods so when Twin Peaks came out I could really identify with that element in that show.

The sort of communing with nature and this dark or benevolent spirits in the forest.

And I feel like that was my first art experience.

That was like the first thing that really moved me.

But really in terms of visual arts, it wasn't until I was at Berkeley that I actually went to a museum for the first time and I took per...performance art class.

Or actually it was called new genres. And it changed my life.

Maybe I should change outfits now? Maybe, should I?

And then in grad school I started to make this series of dresses with medical devices embedded in the fabric.

I was originally making these series to exist on their own, you know to like hang on hangers or on body forms.

But I mean they weren't really coming alive on their own.

♪ Let's go down here. ♪

And I started to think about what kind of person would have to wear such a dress.

♪ Sorry. ♪

♪ Okay... ♪

So really that's where the alter ego started was with this neurotic, hemorrhoid pillow dress character shopping.

♪ Yes? ♪

Shana's alter ego is named Cynthia.

♪ No? Okay. ♪

And also because the first video didn't really have an ending I put "to be continued" at the end

And so then I knew I had to make another one and I also knew I had to give it a title.

So I was thinking like well, what would be something like Twin Peaks? And so I came up with Whispering Pines to like sort of, yeah, base it in my autobiography loosely.

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And then when I...when I moved to New York I started to, one of, one of the jobs I had was as a home organizer.

And we would go to houses usually in like New Jersey or Connecticut and uh, organize people's belongings.

And sometimes it would be like a team of seven people organizing like a massive gar...you know stuffed garage.

And then another job would be organizing someone who is already hyper anal and organized.

Finding like the ideal like penholder for them, you know at the Container Store?

I actually found a lot of I don't know solace in that job just because I...

I sort of veer between having like a chaotic explosion of belongings and then wanting to find like the right penholder for each object.

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There's usually I think something physically wrong with her that's probably in her mind.

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And it's just because I wrestle with hypochondria and you know I had carpel tunnel...

And it was, I think it was real and I think it was pretty, you know, serious enough for me to go on disability but it's something I am always questioning you know.

Do I really have it? Or am I just trying to get out of writing all these emails?

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And I think that's sort of the main impetus for Cynthia's struggles.

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I guess I'm not Cynthia.

But if I'm not, then no one is, or... (laughs)

I mean I am. I think I am. I mean it is, you know, me as if I were a bit more naïve maybe. Or that plus me always being alone.

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It's like a tool for me to figure out my own ambiguities or ambivalence about things in the world...

To help me deal with them and with a little humor and perspective.

So yeah, I don't know how to... I don't know how much I should separate her from myself.

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