Gus Van Sant's 2002 film Gerry consists of two friends (played by Matt Damon and Casey Afflek) going on a hike through the desert to see “the thing," which is never more specifically named. They quickly find themselves lost, and decide “the thing” is not worth further searching. They spend days trudging through an almost empty landscape in search of a way back. They speak very little, and when they do, their words infrequently address their situation directly.
Long shots make up the film, often entirely without dialogue, or without the presence of the two figures. The landscape affects the psyches of the characters subtly, while affecting them in a more overt physical way.
I am very interested in the real psychology, as well as the mythology of nature's effect on the human psyche, as far as bringing out our more animalistic qualities.
In this series of drawings, I am focusing on the one scene of human violence that occurs in the film, and the vacant landscape scenes that surround it.
What originated as a true event becomes a narrative retelling through news media, to screenplay, to a film, to selective framing on my part, to a hand drawing.
I am actively participating in precisely the same removal I have a conflict with, to highlight a paradox that I find myself stuck in as well.
