The Cage of Sand

If asked to say what this work is about in one word, the answer — which is woven into the electronic musique concrète soundtrack — would be a Joycean one: it’s a “collideorscape.” The imagery is a return to materials Rankus dealt with as a young man in the video Naked Doom (1983). He has recycled imagery such as cages, a toy robot, and brain convolutions; newer motifs include a winged ballerina, Victorian corsets, and alchemical vessels containing birds. These visual elements are arranged and rearranged in varied configurations that have a subtle and ambiguous sense of dramatic progression. They collide, but finally do escape.

Watch an interview with the artist discussing Cage of Sand at the 57th Ann Arbor Film Festival.