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Rubbing Space
2022
Alejandro Ferrandiz
Music by Harold Budd

"Rubbing Space : Episode 1" stands as my interpretation of the art of rubbings and how they capture details we overlook everyday.

I spent about an hour filming a few different 'scenes' or angles of people walking through Pier 35 in Manhattan, by the East River. Any other day, I would just pass through the area and not even think about where I was or the people passing through.

Inspired by a book I read for my design class, “Frottages and Rubbings” artist Max Ernst explains, “rubbings can reveal certain details, or intricacies that are often overlooked, as common as they may be. “ I wanted to replicate a certain mundanity that could be picked apart and rewatched over and over again, finding beauty in the mundane.

Something I was not anticipating was stumbling upon an extravagant proposal, decked with rose petals and candles. Notice the preparation and set up for this big moment throughout the film. I hadn’t even recognized this until I was editing.

In using film as the medium to capture movement and interaction with a space, I found myself focusing on a new person each time I watched it, creating narratives for passerbys, uplifting a certain mundanity which we constantly fail to recognize... In the same way rubbings can create narratives for the subject and context for the space around it.

That’s why I called it “Rubbing Space” because In theory, I wanted to take my graphite stick and rub/record a moment in time through film, the same way rubbings capture moments on paper.

Watch with headphones to pick up on conversations and real-time audio of each scene.

This project was filmed on March 6th, 2022 from around 4:50 pm to 6 pm.

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