Karen Skloss
Love Story, 2005
two rear-projection screens, video installation
12 min.

As a single mother, adopted child, filmmaker, and artist I have been cultivating an interest in the make-up of the contemporary family. Having worked a good deal as an editor of documentary film, I am particularly interested in the hidden narratives that lie beneath the surface of a given moment. My inquiry centers on the mother's role in contemporary family life, particularly that of the single mother. I am currently working on an extended series of video portraits, melding some of the formal qualities of the posed photograph with the happenstance of a documentarian's approach to video. In this way, I frame stories embedded in rites of passage and rituals, such as loss of virginity or marriage, while mining treasured objects such as family portraits, albums, or home movies for narratives that outline power struggles within male-female relationships.