JORDAN RATHUS (USA)
THAT’S WHY I’M HERE
PN PROJECT
PREVIEW MARCH 17. 7 – 9PM

Opening hours: March 18. – 19. & April 1. – 2. 12 – 3pm
Screening times: 12.15pm, 1.00pm, 1.45pm & 2.30pm
Duration 35 min

Jordan Rathus presents a new improvisational docu-narrative film with supporting sculpture and works on paper. That’s Why I’m Here chronicles a multi-coastal search for an alternative way of life, from the perspective of a character conceived and played by Jordan Rathus.

With a mélange of influences from many time periods and cultures, the narrative meanders through an assortment of fictional and nonfictional stories, including the cultural histories of Norway, Iceland, and the Hudson Valley. Morals taken from the Hávamál (a collection of Old Norse poems from the Viking Age attributed to the god Odin) are mixed with fragments of Hudson Valley fables, such as “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving, to create inspiration for a wandering soul as her sense of self, time, fiction and the real begin to blend.

Jordan Rathus (b. 1983 in Princeton, New Jersey) recontextualizes storytelling formats, such as documentary and narrative film, to humorously and critically examine our collective contributions to pop culture. Rathus earned her BFA in Film and Television Production from New York University in 2005 and a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts (New Genres) at Columbia University, New York in 2012. She is a recipient of the Brooks Fellowship Award from Anderson Ranch, Snowmass Village, CO and the Tony Hawkins Award from New York University, New York. Solo and group exhibitions and performances have been held at venues such as The Jewish Museum, New York, NY; The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, NY; Art Institute of Malmo, Malmo, Sweden; and Adams and Ollman Gallery, Portland, OR. Rathus lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

That’s Why I’m Here has recently been showed at Upfor Gallery, Portland, Oregon and Moving Image, New York, Armory Week, 2017.

The project is a collaboration between Site95/curator Meaghan Kent and Prosjektrom Normanns.

Prosjektrom Normanns is supported by Arts Council Norway, Stavanger Municipality and Rogaland Municipality