Karl Nussbaum - Statement

Invisible to the naked eye

As a filmmaker, I think of myself primarily as a collage artist – I collect thousands of images, samples, photos, artifacts, scraps of paper, and video footage that I then alter and layer to create a visual flow with new meanings and unexpected visual juxtapositions. I call my works ‘narrative collages’ – very abstract, dream-like collages that are held together with a short metaphoric story or concept to create an emotional arc, like a narrative does. Sometimes the story structure is just a series of open ended questions, to be looked at from multiple points of view. In the process of moving the pieces around and creating new connections, the work reveals itself to me.

The spiritual journey my projects take me on gives me direction and exposes me to many numerous points of view of a subject or concept. Using multiple, dissolving layers (up to 30 visual layers sometimes) and flowing imagery is a hallmark of my work. Double exposure symbolizes the interconnection and flow in the world. It is also a metaphor for two or more points of view on a subject simultaneously. For instance, Raw Images from the Optic Cross is about my father and I both looking at the Holocaust from two generations and two different points of view – he lived it, I imagine it. In Thanatos and Eros: A monster love story, I look at what we can believe in when things turn deadly; how we deal death and despair in real life, and what can love really do in the world – all from multiple view points simultaneously. In my new work I look at ideas from both a male and female perspective, rational vs. emotional and from adult and child viewpoints, intertwining them.

My new series of 10 short films, collectively called Return to grace, is to be presented on a large, framed monitor as ‘moving paintings’. This video cycle explores ideas about transformation, hypnosis, water (as related to both religion and art forms) the brain, the unconscious, the rational vs. the emotional mind, neural pathways, evolutionary biology, lunar and water cycles (as metaphors for reincarnation and emotional evolution). The video cycle is also concerned with the unseen forces that affect our lives (like weather, body language, neurochemistry, attraction, and magnetic forces.) Contemplating the beauty and eloquence of biology and the spirituality of nature, I am reflecting on the ways one changes their mind over time.

Each short film in the series has separate but interlocking ideas. For instance, in Return to Grace, water is used as a metaphor for our unconscious and what lies unseen below the surface. The two sides of the brain are explored In Reframing, which is a term used in hypno-therapy and NLP to describe viewing a situation from another, equally valid and more helpful viewpoint. The Weather inside Us is a metaphor for the invisible forces and emotions that are influencing our lives and our relationships. In Paintings change their minds, the blurry paintings represent change and indecision made flesh - the psyche in transformation, as if slowed way down to see the minute changes, invisible to the naked eye.

I think of filmmaking as casting a spell on an audience and pulling them into my world. I wish to overwhelm their rational mind and to mesmerize them, speaking directly to their unconscious through a rush of imagery, music and sound. In the end, I collage to make connections between images, feelings, and ideas and ultimately between people.

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