TRAVELOGUE SERIES

Rathus’s Travelogue Series includes films and objects from her exhibitions entitled That’s Why I’m Here and FERNWEH: FARSICKNESS.

That’s Why I’m Here chronicles a multi-coastal search for an alternative way of life, from the perspective of a character conceived and played by Rathus. With a mélange of influences from many time periods and cultures, the narrative meanders through an assortment of fictional and nonfictional stories, including the cultural histories of Norway, Iceland, and the Hudson Valley. Morals taken from the Hávamál (a collection of Old Norse poems from the Viking Age attributed to the god Odin) are mixed with fragments of Hudson Valley fables, such as “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving, to create inspiration for a wandering soul as her sense of self, time, fiction and the real begin to blend. The project is a collaboration between Site95/curator Meaghan Kent, Torrance Shipman gallery (NY) and Prosjektrom Normanns. The work has been exhibited at Upfor Gallery in Portland, OR and Prosjektrom Normanns in Stavanger, Norway.

FERNWEH: FARSICKNESS features travelogue videos that deconstruct the realism of the documentary genre. While performing the pervasive, hybridized role of tourist-documentarian, Rathus travels to distinct corners of the globe, chronicling her prefabricated adventures. No Comment is a video produced in Finnish Lapland, nestled deep within the Arctic Circle; Based on, If Any is a video shot in the tropical rainforests lining the Panama Canal.

Photos: Jan Inge Haga and Mario Galluci