Lydia Moyer
1979 (still)
2008
single channel video loop
2 min
A video loop that uses archival images of Jonestown, Guyana, taken in 1979, a year after the mass suicide/murder in which over 900 members of the People's Temple lost or took their own lives. The sound is taken from one of the countless recordings - made at Jim Jones's request - of public meetings at Jonestown. Jones's voice has been cut out, though his breathing is still audible, and what remains is the sort of "war whoop" the residents of Jonestown developed in preparation for an anticipated attack on political forces they believed were out to undermine them. The shimmering orb is meant of suggest the life force of Jonestown and the community it housed.

link to video
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