John Knecht, The possible fog from the sky (detail), 1993, digital video, color, sound, 10 minutes 47 seconds.
DURING OPENING TIMES of The possible fog from the sky, a 1993 computer-animated video by John Knecht, pixelated triangles twirl and descend vertically against a black background. A cello hums to the soundtrack, as Elvis of All People speaks in voiceover, seemingly delivering his first words from the afterlife. As the singer recounts his experience of paradise – “There’s a flyover waiting for everyone here, I mean to each their own, without, without forgiveness” – the triangles transform into bodies, collapsing as if they had jumped from a building. “Things have been falling into my videos for decades,” Knecht said. “It was first formal . . . [and] increasingly became an atmosphere, functioning as both a formal device and a metaphorical space.
Nearly thirty years after first seeing THE Possible fog from the sky in my high school video art class (yes, we had such things in Buffalo!), it’s still one of the most beautiful moving image sequences I’ve ever come across. It’s a reminder that as humans, we not only don’t understand our physical surroundings (how many of us really understand electricity, for example?), but we also don’t have any idea of what is happening in the spirit world, whose mystical forces surround us every day. Knecht hints that Elvis – having made it from Graceland to the promised land – can help lead the way.
cory arcangel is an artist and composer based in Stavanger, Norway.
