Unnatural High

Unnatural High

'Unnatural High' is a poetic re-enactment of the demise of my parents' marriage. In the video, my mother wearing her vintage wedding dress, sits overlooking the ocean with red helium balloons attached to her hair. My father enters the frame and begins cutting her hair. As each bundle of hair is cut, the helium balloon and the wind carry it away over the ocean. This is an act which denotes my parents’ years of growth together, slowly being severed over time, until they make the final separation. Just as throwing ashes over the ocean provides those left behind with an opportunity to put to rest their loved one and their own loss; this video is an expression of mourning, of my letting go and moving on from the past. This video was selected to be exhibited in Hatched 2010: National Graduate Show at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (Perth) as well as in the group exhibition Mortality at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (Melbourne), curated by Juliana Engberg which included prominent video artists such as Bill Viola.

Melanie Beresford 2014

Glossary

Watch below 48 seconds Excerpt of the 4mn video on You Tube

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