Seven days with Clifford
(1 channel, 27min)
What do we know about our next-door neighbors? For most people the answer is: almost nothing. With this realization in hand, video artist David Hodge picked up his camera set out to learn something about the man who lived next door. Every day for a week, he spent a half hour with his neighbor Clifford, who agreed to reveal many intimate details about his life. The result is an intriguing video installation. The seven days are shown on seven portrait-sized screens arranged in a room much like a photography exhibition. The dialogue between the asker—David—and the subject Clifford is an exercise in discovery. Each day, Clifford chooses to reveal something new about himself, including a recent suicide of a friend, his childhood in Lebanon, and why he writes poetry. Ultimately, the installation explores how unknown the familiar is. We often see people we meet on the way to the mailbox or the store as almost non-people, reliable for a quick conversation and little else. “Seven Days with Clifford” peels the cover off the neighborly façade, and show that those we think we know often have lives far more complex and interesting than we ever imagined.
Music composed by Jay Cloidt
