The Faithful

Overview

In a large room of a galley or public site, two walls facing each other are covered by video projections displaying a series of portraits originally shot on 16mm film. On one wall a succession of men are posing alone next to a pool table at Touché, Chicago’s oldest leather bar. There are six men of different ages, styles, body types and races. The performers all look directly in the camera. The framing remains the same for the six shots. Each shot is the length of a hundred feet of film complete with the leader and flares at the beginning and end of each roll. On the opposite wall, five men are posing in front of a mural within the same formal system. Once projected in a room, the men will appear to be cruising each other from opposite sides of a virtual bar. Since the number of portraits is not the same on each wall, when the videos loop, the men will be flirting with a different partner.