Soap + Fire

The first part of Soap + Fire consists of a panning shot (left to right) over bottles and boxes of cleaning supply, which JoAnn Elam might have thought of including in Daytime Television (date unknown) or some other project devoted to women’s place in society and the “politics of housework.” The second part shows the red and blue flames of a fire dancing in the dark across the screen, which perhaps offered another opportunity for Elam to explore film’s capacity to capture light and/in movement. Fires seem to have been of great interest to her, for the collection includes two other elements focusing on fires, Fire (date unknown) and Firelight (date unknown). The framing and the camera height in Soap + Fire are the same as in Fire and Firelight, indicating perhaps that this footage belonged to the same project. Without further evidence, however, one can only speculate about Elam’s intentions.