JEROME AB
At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing, 2021

4-channel video, brushed aluminum, found
debris, sound, 8’ x 12’H
Video: 07:49 min
Score: 20:00 min
Director of Photography: Maddy Talias
Gaffer: John Izaparte
Video Editor: Matthew Delatorre
Sound design: Killian Brom with support by
Brian Bryne
Vocals: Eartheater
Strings: Jasminfire
Movement performed by Morgan Bobrow-
Williams and Quenton Stuckey
Shot at Greenwood Studios, Brooklyn, NY

Jerome AB’s At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing (2021) is a mixed-media installation, movement video, and soundscape.

A case study in surrender, the work consists of an artifact, once buried beneath compounded terrain, now displayed within the museum walls. Its provenance unaccounted for, the 12’ high metal structure operates like a time capsule, nestled in excavated ground.

Inside the enclosure is a three-dimensional video file, attempting to relay a psychological unraveling captured in real time. Past glitches of lapsed memories, the video’s subject comes to a road diverged.

In one instance, we can choose to find comfort in the cards we have been dealt, to live life on life’s terms. In another, our circumstances can feel like they are closing in on us, with the only option left to fight.

What starts as one figure, splits, and fragments into a multiplicity of being. At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing explores the existence of two seemingly opposing truths that can co-exist as one reality.

Set to a deteriorating meditative score, a self-help spiral featuring multi-instrumentalists Eartheater and Jasminfire, AB’s At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing explores what it means to relinquish control and to find courage in faith.

Jerome AB’s At Once Terrifying and Equally Freeing is organized by Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) as
part of Toby’s Prize.

1/30-6/5/2022