Featured artist: Sam Silversides

by Miles Stemp 

Sam Silversides’ work can be described as spontaneously planned, meaning there is this ephemeral quality to his work where it lives in the zone somewhere between meticulously considered and entirely impulsive.  His video works follow the same type of structure. But in his recent works it’s not as evident; you can tell there was a general idea and plan, yet there were allowances for improvisations.

Silversides’ most recent video work and most ambitious project is Love at the Last Minute. Shot like a spaghetti western on a blissfully perfect day, Silversides investigates the classic man versus machine trope.  We are introduced to two characters, a man (played by Silversides) and a machine (played by a ‘56 Chevy) along a dirt road as the two square up for a duel, a run/drive straight at each other.  The inevitable happens, and Silversides’ character is smoked by the car, even though we somehow hope that he would crumple the car.  The resolution following the last shot is a clenched hand slowly releasing to reveal a spark plug, indicating the death of the car.

When I first saw the film I instantly thought of Phillip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (later popularized in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner).  Even though the two seem completely different, they both exemplify the human struggle to stay afloat in a sea of progress.  There is a rejection of technology as one man’s seemingly futile attempt to subvert progress or at least to bring it into question.  It is as if he is saying not all development is good development.  But the irony is that the work would not have been able to be made unless there was progress.  Not that I am saying it is bad thing or that it creates a disconnect in the work. More the opposite- it adds another layer. 

Title:  Love at the Last Minute