Headlands Center for the Arts

Artist Statement

In my work, I use the language and materials of filmmaking to comment on popular culture, history, politics, and sexuality. My primary focus is on contemporary topics through a montage of techniques combining live action, animation, and found footage. I create elaborately layered collages, works on paper, paintings, installations, writing, and live performances with musicians. I completed visuals for the opera The Garden by composer Richard Ayres in 2018, which premiers in England in 2019 with a performance by the London Sinfonietta. Currently I am collaborating with a number of composers on film and theater projects and planning to use my time at Headlands to develop new work.

While at Headlands

A large part of my work as an artist is collaboration. At Headlands I will have a curated rotation of “virtual guest” composers, musicians, video artists, and artists whose works explore consciousness and human perception, using modular synthesis, minimalism, patterns, duration, and feedback. The virtual guests will contribute work to be played or performed within the duration of a day in the open studio. Visitors to the open studio in Project Space will be invited to contribute to the creation of an animation exploring the infinite generation of new patterns and forms by using a multiplane glass animation stand in the studio. As the “virtual and living guests” work is being played, projected, or performed, visitors will be introduced to a number of physical and mental exercises that I use to build the connection of the mind, body, and time to create a film.

Selected Works

Martha Colburn, The Garden, 2018; video projections; composer Richard Ayres

Martha Colburn, LUNA FETE, 2018; video mapping collaboration

Martha Colburn, Hammer-Camera-Scissors, 2018; four-screen installation

Martha Colburn, Westernwild, 2017; animated film and video