All Ladies Video Review

The "All Ladies Video Review" held at the Blue Stars Satellite Art Space highlighted 6 different female video artists. Among these 6, 2 especially stuck out: Michelle Monseau and Anne Wallace.
Michelle Monseaus "Isabel" (2008) is composed of a 2 channel digital video projection. This video is a part of an ongoing series called "Gone Again with Isabel". On the Artist Foundation of San Antonio website, Monseau comments on her series...

Using a motif of “sleeping” as the main metaphor, I am interested in how we get to the point of being figuratively “asleep” while we are conscious—do we simply lie down and drift off pleasantly because it is the easiest response? Do we take a nasty spill and become unconscious? The repercussions of the propensity toward escaping are hinted at in the images, but are definitely not spelled out.

"Isabel" features both a woman and a man sleeping on the street in front of a huge bank building. The walls look as if they have stood there forever, while the sleeping people are only passing through this reality for a brief moment. Maybe Monseau is also commenting on people's tendency to fall down before something that appears to be bigger and more powerful. By panning up to the sky and back down to the people it does seem as if the artist is emphasizing the small, fragile-ness of the people and the enduring physical monstrosity of the building by comparison.

In contrast to the detached, philosophical lens of Michelle Monseaus, Anne Wallace created a deeply personal, haunting piece called "Dream". Within the gallery brochure is the source of Anne's inspiration...

...an installation about childhood, memory and loss, in particular my younger sister's death.

In "Dream" a woman plunges underwater and scuba-dives through an empty house. Sometimes the sound of scuba breathing is replaced by the sound of hospital equipment. Then the woman is transformed into a fish. It's hard to write about the meaning of this video experience because it is so subconscious in nature. Does the artist wish she could become a fish so the sad blue world she lives in makes more sense? While this installation leaves logical interpretation up to the viewer, the sad and slow feeling of loss was instantly and constantly communicated.