Alida Walsh Project
Silence is not absolute, because matter vibrates as a fact of it's existence. Silence only names a quality of refused rationality, refused sociality, which is to say refused intimacy. So it's not so much silence as it is the ghost, the ghosting, of severed connection, a renunciation of the possible in the service of coherence of normativity. Such ghosting is the presence of loss. - Ashon Crawley
In early 2017, I discovered a relative of mine who I never knew about, a contemporary of my father - they grew up blocks from each other near 80th and Paulina, but never met. This relative (my dad’s second cousin), Alida Walsh, was a queer feminist experimental filmmaker and artist, active in the late 60s and 70s in New York, and passed away in 2006. Discovering her existence led me on a research journey to her archives at Smith College, to Florida to meet her sister, and go through an intense interview process with my dad about his family.
Between the deep silence of my family around my Aunt (also a lesbian) who died by suicide before I was born, Alida's story, and my own journey, I found myself in winding narrative of queerness and silence, ghosts and family, memory and myth. This project will showcase recently digitized experimental films of Alida Walsh, alongside and accompanied by multiple pieces of original improvised music composed by Kate Walsh. A mini-zine will give context to the story, and a small panel of film experts will situate Alida Walsh's work within the feminist film tradition. These pieces will explore themes of presence, loss, decay, and time.
- Kate Walsh
$10