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Paulette Phillips Ecstasy by Sarah Nind "Ecstasy" is Paulette Phillips' third video project in an ongoing series titled The Secret Life of Criminals. It is based on an event from the artist's childhood, when she found a woman's naked body in the woods behind her house. In her video installation there is a glass shelf and two 6min. video loops. Half of the shelf is sandblasted for the video projection, the other half holds a small LCD monitor. While the projection speculates possibility, the loop viewed on the monitor provides evidence of the actual event. In the projection, a woman appears wandering through an abandoned snowy landscape. She disrobes, article by article—a fake-fur coat, sequined dress, pink stockings — and then lies down in the snow. The second video traces that sequence backwards, from the clothing found in the landscape back to the woman lying naked in the snow. The weather shifts from an overcast day to a blizzard. By presenting two variations of the same event, Phillips implies the duality of human behaviour — our instinct to survive and our tendencies to self-destruct.
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