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Chronicle of Hip, feature film excerpt

How do we societally handle a “deficient” body?

What are the aesthetics of deficiency? Of heroism?

What needs to change for a ‘deficient body’ to not be an aberration, an obstacle, a slow cog-in-the-wheel —> but an asset?

What are the consequences and benefits of going public with pain?

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Lily is technically a restorative cyborg. Using veritè footage documenting her experience and medical documents of her “compensated” body, she appropriates pop-aesthetics (cyborg and Manga inspired) that invert assumptions of power and hijack ableist cultures of beauty.

Enhanced Body: “Powering”
Doctor’s office, New York City
Documentation from 2018 re-edited in 2023
Video, film still from Chronicle of Hip and X-Ray

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Enhanced Body: “Unleashing”
Lower East Side, New York
Documentation from 2018 re-edited in 2023
Film still from Chronicle of Hip

Enhanced Body: “Flight”
Train Station, Waltham, MA
Video, film and X-Ray
2023

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Enhanced Body: “Cyborg C #1”
Neuköln, Berlin
Digital collage, film and X-Ray
2023

Enhanced Body: “Cyborg A”
Lower East Side, New York
Documentation from 2018 re-edited in 2023
Video, film still from Chronicle of Hip and X-Ray

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Enhanced Body: “Cyborg C #2”
Neuköln, Berlin
Digital collage, film and X-Ray
2023

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Enhanced Body: “Cyborg B”
New York and Berlin
Documentation from 2018 re-edited in 2023
Digital collage, film still from Chronicle of Hip and X-Ray

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Enhanced Body: “Cyborg D”
Boston, Massachusetts
Documentation from 2018 re-edited in 2023
Film from Chronicle of Hip and X-Ray

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In this collection of cinematic snapshots, Baldwin personifies her hidden parts (MRI of her spinal cord lesion, X-Ray of her arthritic pelvis pre and post hip replacement) as “Player 1” who she inserts within public spaces from her day-to-day world. Each encounter with stranger or friend re-stages a moment that her body could not participate in, or found challenging to do so – either by choice or by function. Sometimes a recognizable Baldwin in her present condition appears as a character alongside Player 1. In these uncanny collisions  – surreal, gamified, and vulnerable slices of life –  Baldwin investigates what it means to go public with pain and perceived weakness.

Appearances from the Abyss: “Player 1 offers help”
Workers on the Lower East Side, New York
Digital collage, film and X-ray
2023

Appearances From The Abyss: “Player 1 does laundry”
Lower East Side Laundromat, New York, 2023
Digital collage, film and X-ray

Appearances from the Abyss: “Player 1 prepares to jump”
Lower East Side studio with Olimpia Dior, New York
Digital collage, film and X-ray
2023

Appearances from the Abyss: “Player 1 at Tempelhof”
Berlin, Germany
Digital collage, film and X-ray
2023

Appearances from the Abyss: “Player 1 embraces couple”
Berlin, Germany
Digital collage, film and X-ray
2023

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Appearances from The Abyss: “Player 1 bumps into stranger”
Mexico City
Video, film and MRI
2023

WHERE DO YOU PUT YOUR MYSTERY?

including not exclusive to:

PAIN

(unsharable yet undeniably present)

(physical vs. grief)

NUMBNESS

(absence of self)

LOSS OF (motor) CONTROL

INJURY

ILLNESS

UNDIAGNOSED SYMPTOMS

SYNDROMES

CONDITIONS

CURSES

DEATH

EVERYTHING ELSE I’M MISSING

If you’d like to chat further as I develop this project, feel free to reach out. I’m between Berlin and New York.

Thanks,

Lily

Lily@lilybaldwin.com