An Insignificant Moment

An Insignificant Moment is a video triptych reflecting exactly that. Arceneaux filmed three women of different social backgrounds in apparently unrelated situations in Houston, Texas. They silently take children to school, work on the computer, shop at a neighbourhood grocery, walk home, eat and drive a car. In one moment their paths cross. The alignment of the three characters acts as mnemonic trigger, a temporary recognition of some other aspect of the self…a simple moment in passing, rendered insignificant. “The goal is not to be emotional, but to be direct,” says Arceneaux, and he demonstrates this in his work: shot with minimal cinematographic means and without using professional actresses, but “people from next door,” the three films are provided with a documentary authenticity and sobriety which make the irrational alignment of the women even more stirring.When the work of Edgar Arceneaux (Los Angeles, 1972) results in a film, he employs a minimalist approach to acting and shooting a film, a reflexive process of shooting and assembling which allows for the patterns of each participant’s daily interactions to dictate the structure and pace of the video work. He believes that a reliance on this way of working allows for the project to carve itself through time, as opposed to conforming to a rigid framework.