Jillian McDonald | Chantier IA

4-week individual residency

The experimental video Total Eclipse and the Heart is inspired by the 2024 solar eclipse and filmed in New York, Québec, Greenland, and Utah. During an eclipse that remains inexplicably frozen, characters are irresistibly drawn to their windows, step outside, and vanish into oblivion. Their disappearance is depicted through visual techniques common in horror and science fiction—wading into deep water, crawling into underground tunnels, or crumbling into fragments in the forest.

A colossal 3D moon looms both indoors and outdoors, while the tides, the night, the landscape, and the moon itself take on roles as characters in this tale of symbiosis and solitude. Influenced by A. Laurie Palmer’s The Lichen Museum and Donna Haraway’s Staying with the Trouble, some scenes are filmed from the perspective of moss, lichens, and fungi.

The video blends live-action footage with sequences generated using artificial intelligence technologies, including deepfakes and prompt-based video. Its percussive soundtrack features drums, drone sounds, radio as an instrument, and popular music referencing the moon.

📷 : Total Eclipse and the Heart, 2024. Courtesy of the artist