meghan tomeo: modern ennui

Modern Ennui, color, sound, 2009

Modern Ennui is a video in a series of photo, drawing and collage work which is based on the use of mirrors. In this video the image is seen either pouring into or folding out of it's symmetrical center. The viewer is brought to wonder what is at the center, and what exactly makes up what is folding and pouring. Edited in most ways like a film, where a sort of narrative can be discerned, though loose and partial, in this way, the artist was thinking of Michelangelo Antonioni's neo-realist film L'Avventura, which critics donned Antonennui because nothing seems to happen as the film follows the main character in her internal conflict and emotional ambiguity.

Modern Ennui uses images of a family vacationing and presents them in the colorful palette of technicolor, although shot in digital. The video is inspired by colorful photo slides found from the 1960's and 70s which the artist, mirrored in a similar way, and used for a series of digital collages. (these images can be found on meghantomeo.com/digitalcollage.html)