Shot in 1984 in Monterey, MA, this footage shows a log cabin, the nature surrounding it, and two women gardening on a sunny day. JoAnn Elam’s interests in farm labor, gender roles, and nature intersect in Monterey ’84, where she also experiments with abrupt cutting techniques and reverse motion. Monterey seems to have been a
Using stop motion, JoAnn Elam animates a series of pictures drawn by hand and depicting pink, purple, and blue flowers, trees, and suns. Although the landscapes resemble a child’s drawings and may be described as naive, they are also somewhat menacing, when the flowers and the suns grow bigger on the screen until they invade
This short footage by JoAnn Elam shows two women digging a hole in the woods. As many elements in this collection reveal, Elam was interested in farm labor, especially as she spent some time in Monterey, MA in the early 1980s. Throughout her life, Elam was also an advocate for gender equality and her work
Shot from a flying airplane, this footage by JoAnn Elam first shows a series of landscapes near the ocean, clouds, and the geometrical grids of American suburban neighborhoods (location unknown). Near the end, Elam turns her attention to the airport employees working on the tarmac while the plane is stationary. This element ends on a
B/W Mich, NY + Mass starts with black and white shots of nature taken in the woods, possibly in Michigan or Monterey, MA, which JoAnn Elam visited often in the early 1980s. As in other film works by Elam, the camera focuses on the canopy, on tree leaves casting their shadows on the ground, and
Monterey Maple Farm Bird and Wasp Feeder belongs to a series of elements shot by JoAnn Elam at a farm in Monterey, MA, over the course of a few years in the early 1980s. While the other elements in the series explore the farmers’ work and the surrounding flora and fauna, Monterey Maple Farm Bird