My eyes already touch the sunny hill.
going far beyond the road I have begun,
So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp;
it has an inner light, even from a distance-
and changes us, even if we do not reach it,
into something else, which, hardly sensing it,
we already are; a gesture waves us on
answering our own wave…
but what we feel is the wind in our faces.
– ‘A Walk’ by Rainer Maria Rilke
I SAW THE MARKS THEY MADE AND THE WIND WAS BLOWING
Wind, in its essence, is the movement of air. Sensorial in its nature, we can hear it and feel it, but only see it through the movement it creates in our surroundings. In West Texas during the spring season, fleeting whirlwinds known as dust devils appear and then vanish like apparitions. The sand and dirt picked up in these swirling columns of air is subsequently scattered, altering the landscape in the process. Though relatively small in size, these vortexes have a cumulative effect on the shape of the region, leaving noticeable marks over time. The behavior of these elusive whirlwinds are akin to all passersby, inevitably leaving traces behind and transforming the space that once was.
During their residency with Ballroom Marfa, artists Janaye Brown and Adriana Corral traversed the Marfa region and sought out locations in which their shaping remains evident. Scenes imbued with a history of use, formation and an air of mystery were compiled to create I SAW THE MARKS THEY MADE AND THE WIND WAS BLOWING; a short film that takes the viewer on a slow-paced journey in West Texas from sunrise to sunset.
Narratives embedded in the area, both natural and man-made, make themselves present in I SAW THE MARKS THEY MADE AND THE WIND WAS BLOWING. Whether it’s the patina in the century-old movie theater, the dirt roads worn into the ground by regular use or the wind-shaped canyons and caves, each scene in Brown and Corral’s short contains a multitude of stories through extended vignettes. The pacing of the short allows space for meditation, an approach antithetical to the common state of hurried looking. The viewer is given time to examine everything within the frame, allowing each shot to tell its own tale. I SAW THE MARKS THEY MADE AND THE WIND WAS BLOWING portrays the region that Marfa inhabits, considers the tensions it holds and seeks to permit the beauty found in everyday moments within the passage of time.
4K Video, Color, Sound, TRT: 14:08
Collaboration with Janaye Brown
Commissioned by Ballroom Marfa