Stand By Your Man

A three-part portrait that uses instant-replay to bring the past and future into the same present moment.  It was inspired by early work of Joan Jonas in which she used video almost as a mask: her live action was behind or in a room separated from the monitored video footage. 

Stand By Your Man was the template for Video Portrait 
http://www.pollymotley.com/p/video-portrait.html



1989 Naropa Institute, Boulder, Colorado


"Motley used hand-held cameras to trace the detail in her gripping solo performance.  With the combination of well-placed lighting and the stark black-and-white monitors, she managed to draw the audience to a tight focus that hovered between the live action, the intensified detail and the wicked twist of her replays."
Michael Zangari,  Colorado Daily, 1989

...the production created the illusion that Ms. Motley was both herself and the memory of her father.
Jack Anderston, The New York Times, 2004