For our last week of the Gazelli Art House Residence, C.A.R.L.A. and I decided to revisit and virtually perform Terry Gilliam’s 1985 film Brazil. It does take place during Christmas after all, although it’s certainly no Hallmark special. Steampunk and slapstick meet a surreal vision of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four in this now classic work. It almost didn’t get released, or released with the proper “less than happy” ending, in the US back in 1985. C.A.R.L.A., who is used to the texture of her face being stretched in 3D modeling programs, first plays Sam Lowry’s mother as she undergoes an absurd plastic surgery procedure. Next, C.A.R.L.A. and I both played Jill, Sam’s love interest, with me as the “Jill of reality,” the truck-driving, takes no sh*t Jill, and C.A.R.L.A. as the virtual version of her who inhabits all of Sam’s dreams (but this time Jill’s wearing the wings).

And in case the tune is playing in your head as you read this, here are the Lyrics to Brazil by Michael Kamen, the theme song for Gilliam’s film ????????

Brazil…
Where hearts were entertaining June
We stood beneath an amber moon
And softly murmured someday soon…
We kissed…
And clung together
Then…
Tomorrow was another day
The morning found me miles away *
With still a million things to say
Now…
When twilight dims the skies above **
Recalling thrills of our love
There’s one thing I’m certain of
Return…
I will…
to old…
BRAZIL.

For the December GAZELL.iO Residency Brooklyn-based artist Carla Gannis will be collaborating with her avatar C.A.R.L.A. G.A.N. (Crossplatform Avatar for Recursive Life Action Generative Adversarial Network) to mine the philosophical and emotional depths of Sci-fi tropes and Magic Realist allegories. Through mimesis, performance and conversation, in virtual and physical spaces, Gannis and C.A.R.L.A. will switch between mentor and mentee to create poetic instantiations of the “real” across realities.