Hogan Seidel

Sorrow Halved

In 2019, Hogan Seidel and Gabby Sumney decided to tackle a yearly collaboration called Sorrow Halved–from the German idiom “Geteilte Freude ist doppelte Freude, geteilter Schmerz ist halber Schmerz.” or “A joy shared, is a joy doubled. A sorrow shared, is a sorrow halved.” The two queer artists took a shine to the idiom as they considered ways to subvert traditional notions of authorship and the experimental canon in their practice and their teaching. The “sorrow” of singular creative genius that is often hailed in the experimental world felt counter to the lessons they were bringing to their students and to their approach to making queer art. For one year, Gabby and Hogan took the same strip of 35mm clear leader and passed it back and forth every month. There were no restrictions on how to interact with the strip or limitations on materials. The artists were simply responding to each other through gestures.

Konstantin

Konstantin is an experimental film shot on high-contrast black and white 16mm film using a single 100ft reel. The film is an in-camera edit with triple exposures, creating a layered and complex visual language. Through this aesthetic, the piece explores themes of queer love and queer ecology. It invites the viewer to enter a unique and poetic world, where the boundaries between the human and natural realms blur and merge. Pushing against human exceptionalism and into a world where there is no ‘natural’ or ‘unnatural.’ Can a walk in the forest, a kiss between lovers, a roll of film, the touch of lichen, liberate ourselves from these hierarchies?