During the first year of the Covid Pandemic, working first with interdisciplinary artist Alisha Trimble and then with the performers Mark Jaster and Sabrina Mandell, I made a total of three of what I call Poe Plague Covid Videos. These are based on three stories by Edgar Allan Poe in which he makes reference to a plague: The Masque of the Red Death, Shadow and The Sphinx. 

During those early months of Covid, Alisha Trimble and I began to collaborate remotely. Using my cellphone I began by filming and reframing what she showed me over zoom of whatever she was doing. This included dancing, cutting fabric and displaying for me a few framed works that contain embroidery of French idiomatic expressions. We quickly agreed on Poe’s story as a structuring device.

The final of the three short films made from Poe’s three tales about the plague is SPHINX. By the time I had begun working on this third film Covid had become more manageable. Alisha Trimble and I worked together in New York City where I filmed her dancing the role of the Sphinx Moth against a green screen. That fall I journeyed to Maryland where I filmed Mark and Sabrina playing the couple whose relationship is disrupted by the appearance of the Sphinx Moth. It’s the shortest of the three, no doubt reflecting yet another revision of a relation to time and space.

All three videos have music that remains close to my heart. The first composed by Louis Moutin in Paris and played by members of his family who are also amazing musicians. The next two videos were made with music by Silent Strike in Budapest. The Sphinx includes the voice of Lucia.