I don't know Kern's work, but I assume he takes himself seriously. A reader sent me to this interesting little short as an example of intrinsic folding. That's when something purports to be one thing or clearly sets itself in a genre and then turns out to be something else. Usually the reversal is radical.
Here's what happens in this: the locale is an artificial place, a studio space walled with photographers' cloth. Into this walks a performance artist, Kembra Pfahler, who was a post- Warhol New York diva of the absurd. She's wearing the most outrageous thing she could imagine in street clothes: a cutoff shirt that says "young republicans," a garter and black stockings. Nothing else.
For no apparent reason, she lies down and has a piercer and assistant sew about four loose stitches across her vagina. The thing is compressed into 7-8 minutes. It is poorly lit as if there had been no setup. The camera is usually distant as if it weren't in the same space as the three women.
But there are plenty of close-ups as if that were the reason for making the film. But there's clearly a larger statement here, one that is not apparent unless you know something about Kembra. Antisex is her art, and I assume this was simply preliminary to some event she planned where she would do her art as statement. Along the way, she allowed Kern to do his which is to obliterate the erotic by working with a pseudojournalism of the extreme.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
