Watch now - Grief in Liminal Spaces
Grief in Liminal Spaces, 2021
by Jay Carlon
Directed by Hak Tatah
Music by Lauren Duffus
Grief in Liminal Spaces is not just a film. It's a story.
In May 2021, homeLA brought artists Jay Carlon and Corazón del Sol together over their shared connection to and interest in homelessness and housing insecurity. At the time, Corazon was working with The Oasis Project and architects from ArcSpace to build a low-income housing model with modern design aesthetics that would embrace community living with dignity. Jay had recently lost his brother, Albert, who he said “lived a life of countless traumas, and unyielding pain. With too many years locked in a cage, behind bars. With too many nights without a roof over his head. With too many years self-medicated to numb the pain. And too many years misunderstood.”
A prototype from Jardin des Estrellas was scheduled to arrive at The Box gallery’s parking lot in the summer, where it would remain for 6 months to engage investors and city officials.
Being cultural producers, we all naturally envisioned the house as artwork, blank canvas, backdrop, discursive vehicle, site, and opportunity to explore the powerful ways in which art can affect the way we see, think about, and respond to homelessness in Los Angeles.
With the support of The Box and Corazón, homeLA commissioned Jay to create a site-specific dance work for the model home. Corazón connected Jay with filmmaker, Hakim Tatah, and the prototype arrived unfinished and was installed on October 14th.
While we expected to work with a completed home, the rawness and materiality of the home “under-construction” provided an ideal stage for Jay, his artistry, and subject matter. Jay started a week of rehearsals on October 25th and we filmed on October 30th.
About his process, Jay wrote:
I’m thinking about instability…how I got asked to make a dance around the topic of the unhoused and displacement…and how I, myself, am currently unhoused and displaced. I understand my experience comes with a lot of privilege. But, I can’t help but think of how hard it is for me to make a decision… how hard it is for me to be confident. How hard it is for me to feel anything because I’m really scared. I’m holding onto this notion that what I make for this dance film has to be great, for Albert. To help him transition…
After many sleepless nights, I decided instead to embody the instability, the destabilizing feelings of what it means for diasporic folks to be in a constant state of unrootedness. This film, Grief in Liminal Spaces, is a way to memorialize and encapsulate a time in my life where I focused on transmuting the loss and grief in my life into acceptance and surrender.
