My Head is My Only House Unless It Rains
My Head is My Only House Unless It Rains is a series of non-narrative films, (awarded in several film festivals) and installations. The project looks at how we are separated from the other and how our responsibility to the other puts us in the position of isolation and longing which is at the center of our modern condition.
A look at life in contemporary Beijing. A city in the midst of vast change, it tries to find its way. Movement overpowers stasis in work, life and recreation.
My response to 11 September 2001.
This is part of a continuing series of video & installations exploring cities established by colonialism. It looks at what these places are in their current situation.
This is part of a continuing series of video & installations exploring cities established by colonialism. It looks at what these places are in their current situation.
This 2 screen video is of Hong Kong. It was made in the Wan Chai section of Hong Kong Island. This work addresses how the local film industry has defined how the city is seen. Wan Chai is a popular location for film shoots.
This video was installed in the stairwell of the Steinhardt Center of the 92nd St Y in New York. It was created as part of the Makor Residency of the Steinhardt Center.
Inspired by a short story by JG Ballard, this work is about life Singapore. Specifically it is about its public housing, the HDB flat. designed to be an alter piece, this work is a triple screen video depicting an endless loop of HDB apartments.
This is a video about The changing character of Jogjakarta Indonesia. It examines how the city is developing from a traditional regional center into a modern city. The contrasts are displayed through the view of the materials used on a construction site and the traffic moving past it.
This work was created as a result of a residency for the Yogya Video Works Festival in 2007, sponsored by the House of Natural Fiber (HONF)
Everything is everywhere. It is rather easy to go to the wilderness and film nature. In Rujak, Ken Feinstien is able to find the natural in the city and present its character as it lives there. Ken's aims is to be able to present his own space and time in to the viewer's body as a physical experience.
Rujak gives another perception to everyday life in urban life.
Rujak is Bahasa for a fruit and vegetable salad. In Malaysia & Singapore it is used to mean any form of mixture. This film is such a rujak.
On a formal level this film is concerned with perception. How we perceive, what we perceive and what meaning we derive from it. It plays with one point perspective, flatness & depth and tonality. The master shot of this work is a body of water during a rain storm. It has no perspective to us. There is no horizon line as of point of reference. There is no indication how large or deep the water is. All we know is that we are seeing it from above. Inside this water we four different images. These images are visible only as tonal masks. In this way we are looking at things are not there. Each tonal image has its own relationship with the master image, the fish appear to be under the water, while the ants seem to be on top. The woman's legs & broom plays is in conflict with water, our perception shifts from one perspective to the other create this visual tension. This tension is heightened by the last segment a view of an urban area seen from a moving train. Here the competition of the two images is brought to a head only to resolved by an outside object disrupting the entire visual construct.
The sequencing of the tonal images takes a rough evolutionary form as we go from water borne creature through modern technology. This complements the visual conflicts of the images each image's relationship with the master image becomes less based on the master shot. As the visual conflicts, everything is resolved by the interruption of bicycle.