Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise
Artist
Jason Mitcham
American, born 1979
Date2010
MediumSingle-channel video (color, sound)
ClassificationsTime Based Media
Credit LineGift of the artist
Object number2015.36.2
On View
Not on viewMitcham created this music video for The Avett Brothers’ song, “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise.” The song addresses the “temporary nature of our buildings” and “accepting a temporary state that we may be in,” Scott Avett explains. Avett sings that he is “frightened by those who don’t see” the destructive rate at which communities develop land, and Mitcham’s video visually exposes the foundation of this fear.
To create the video for Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise, Mitcham mounted a blank canvas to his studio wall and focused a fixed camera on the canvas. He painted, and photographed, approximately 2,600 alterations to this single painting (every ten alterations equals one second of filming). Mitcham then used the photographs to create a stop-motion animation video, where the animation is captured one frame at a time to create the illusion of movement. The finished painting presents the viewer with the very last scene of the completed video.
The narrative within the video follows the expansion and decline of the landscape as it develops to meet human needs. At the center of the story is a billboard that adjusts to the growth that surrounds it. For Mitcham, the billboard is the sole character in the video, and it watches over the landscape as time passes. With the rise and fall of the town’s infrastructure, this billboard remains a constant presence, although it also transforms, slowly, over time, showing that nothing is left unimpacted.
[L. Dougherty, "Scott Avett: Invisible," 2019]
ProvenanceProbably created upstate NY, 2010; collection of the artist; sold to NCMA, 2015.Published ReferencesJennifer Dasal, “A New Space for Video and Multimedia Works,” in North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Winter 2015), discussed 18, illus. (color) 18–19.
Exhibition HistoryBrooklyn, NY, Invisible Dog Art Center, “Watch This!” Emerging Filmmakers, November 13–21, 2010.
Raleigh, NC, Artspace, “Rising Into Ruin,” April 1–May 7, 2011.
Annapolis, MD, Wynn Bone Gallery, “Nowhere is Everywhere,” April 30–May 31, 2011.
Los Angeles, CA, “Los Angeles Film Festival,” June 16–26, 2011.
Sarasota, FL, Sarasota Art Center, “Material Matters,” November 3–December 31, 2011.
New York, NY, Performance Space 122,” Moving Picture,” March 24, 2012. Brooklyn, NY, “High Tide Picture Show,” August 11, 2012.
Manchester, UK, Abandon Normal Devices Festival, “Empire Drive-In,” August 29–31, 2012.
New York, NY, Espace Events, “New York Foundation for the Arts Hall of Fame Benefit, April 23, 2013.
Flint, MI, “Flint Free City Festival,” May 3–4, 2013.
New York, NY, “Roger Smith Hotel Video Series,” June 1–30, 2013.
Poznan, Poland, “Animator International Film Festival,” July 13–19, 2013.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Jason Mitcham Video Installations,” January 9–April 12, 2015.
Gainesville, FL, University Gallery, University of Florida, “Image, Object and Idea,” September 8–October 8, 2015.
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