Lolo Ostia · Sustainable Art + Biomaterials

Lolo Ostia

People Don’t Know How Much You Mean to Her (Because You Are Her Quiet Happiness)

Video Installation – Mixed Media                                                        This work explores motherhood in prison. Throughout this project I had the chance of interviewing and photographing over 50 women involve in the criminal justice system. The process of making this film is strongly connected with the idea of shedding light on a subject often neglected by mass media. Children of imprisoned parents are often described as the forgotten victims of imprisonment. For this piece I recorded children playing with a 16mm camera juxtaposing the imagery with some of the many stories women currently incarcerated shared with me. The film in the camera was carefully hand coated with emulsion. The title and this video piece speak about the invisibility of families within the justice system. For the most part the film is unexposed, as a way of protecting children’s identities but also to emphasize the invisibility of our current society.

This piece is presented as a Video Track projected against all surfaces in a room: Walls, ceiling and floor. Audio track is played by 6 different wireless speakers. Volume is enhanced by the audience proximity to a speaker.

The photographs accompanying the video installation are portraits of some the women I interviewed.

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