No Telos, No Beauty, A collaboration between Stephanie Dodes and Marshall Korshak

No Telos, No Beauty from Marshall Korshak on Vimeo.

No Telos, No Beauty (2011) is a single channel video installation and performance. The feedback loop of contemporary society has created a parallel reality, a rhetorical back and forth. Media copies culture, which copies media copying culture to the point where they are both, compounded to the point that neither is representing anything. Our playful installation presents Charlotte Cole, 9 years old, as the centerpiece. She sings, “Edge of Glory” by Lady Gaga, a song of her choice, that she repeats over and over for the duration of the one-hour performance. During her performance, Charlie is directed to be unaware of her spectators, as if they are watching a private act of someone in their bedroom mirror. This repetition acts as a distillation of time. The performance space is filled with signs pointing to an ambiguous self, one that is constructed through a conglomerate of external influences.