VIDEOGRAPHY
a harras
a harras is a video work combining monochrome imagery, electronic sound, and incantatory spoken word into a dark and surreal meditation on ritual and repetition. Through carefully composed static frames, the artist moves through an unfamiliar space, transforming an ordinary physical action into a slow, deliberate performance. The work unfolds as an encounter between image, sound, and language, creating an ambiguous world suspended between the familiar and the unknown.
fissure coming roundabout and longing, full circle
fissure coming roundabout and longing, full circle is a meditative video work built from a series of static compositions that blur the boundary between observation and abstraction. Layers of water, sky, and weathered surfaces gradually overlap and dissolve into one another, creating shifting images that invite sustained observation rather than narrative. Paired with a sparse instrumental score, the work unfolds as a quiet study of light, texture, duration, and impermanence.
the last happy days
the last happy days is a meditative video work constructed from a single static shot filmed at daybreak on the artist’s family farm in northwest Georgia. Layers of forward and reversed footage create a landscape in quiet motion, where drifting clouds and the gradual emergence of light slowly reveal the contours of a familiar place before they begin to dissolve again. Paired with an ambient electronic score, the work transforms an observed landscape into something suspended between memory and abstraction.
seaside magic
Originally conceived as a three-channel installation, seaside magic translates three simultaneous views of landscape and domestic space into a single-screen composition. As a spoken poem unfolds over a droning electronic score, the work explores healing through duration, allowing the slow movement of light, water, and time to reshape the viewer’s experience of stillness. Rather than illustrating the text, the images create parallel fields of attention where subtle changes in light and shadow gradually transform ordinary spaces into sites of contemplation. The work invites viewers to inhabit a state of suspended observation, discovering movement not through action but through time itself.
waiting for the tide is a companion video and poem.
seance
seance is an experimental short film that transforms landscape, memory, and the body into a meditation on ancestry and ritual. Incorporating elements from luke kurtis’s earlier installation works the woods are watching and convergence, the film returns to the rural southern landscape of the artist’s family history and explores the relationship between the living and the dead. Through symbolic gestures and carefully composed imagery, seance inhabits the space between remembrance and communication, imagining ancestry as a form of ongoing presence.
convergence
convergence documents a site-specific earthwork created within the basin of a small man-made pond built by the artist’s grandfather in northwest Georgia. Three symbolic graves dug into the earth represent the shared resting place of humanity—mothers, fathers, and children—while solar-powered orbs placed within the earth symbolize the souls of all beings. Designed to evolve with natural processes, the work transforms when heavy rains fill the site and the illuminated orbs rise from the graves, floating beyond the boundaries of the installation. Inspired by an archaeological excavation of a family cemetery and Flannery O’Connor’s “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” the work reflects on mortality, memory, and the interconnectedness of human experience.
Behind-the-scenes
the woods are watching
the woods are watching documents an environmental installation situated within the artist’s ancestral landscape in northwest Georgia. A monumental enlargement of an antique crayon portrait isolates the eyes of one of the artist’s ancestors and returns them to the forest where generations of his family once lived. Installed in situ, the work allows changing light, weather, and time to become active collaborators, blurring the boundaries between memory, technology, and the living landscape.
Part of the Crayon Portraiture. project.
Behind-the-scenes
Invocation
luke kurtis created this music video for Invocation by Michael Harren, which is from his Tentative Armor project. It features footage from kurtis’s first visit to Iceland, including an early performance of the journey piece.
speak of the dead
speak of the dead explores the role of history, religion, and family and how those forces have often opposed kurtis’s identity as a queer artist.
Part of the baptism suite project.
INTERSECTION exhibition
INTERSECTION was an exhibition by luke kurtis at Massillon Museum. These videos document the behind-the-scenes and the making of the exhibition.