Watch Thollem’s “Here Comes The World” Video:
Who Are U.S. is an audio/visual collaboration between the experimental musician Thollem McDonas and photographer/videographer ACVilla. We first became acquainted with the pair this past April with the release of Thollem’s Machine In the Ghost LP via Personal Archives–an album that he says is, “dedicated to (but not necessarily about) John Trudell, Black Lives Matter, and Rick Bennett“. At that time, a video for the record’s first track “Where Belongs Who” accompanied the release. Shot by ACVilla at the Arizona border with Mexico, her visuals contrasted a fence dividing the two countries with wide expanses of blue sky. Combined with Thollem’s creative recasting of American folk and blues, as well as the song’s pointed title, the social implications were clear.
Who Are U.S. continues this journey with the duo getting ready to release one video per month from their peripatetic travels around the lower forty-eight states. With Machine In The Ghost as its sonic guide, ACVilla’s footage focuses the eye on the “myriad points where people meet each other and their environment”. “Here Comes The World” uses the Republican and Democratic conventions as its backdrop, combining the quotidian with charged moments of social interaction. These hyper-mediated spectacles are watched from the outside, and from this independent vantage, the machinations of corporate, political, and human interests are both frightening and fascinating. Contrasting heavy police presence and the corporate agendas of major news networks with the socially motivated gatherings and concerns of everyday people, “Here Comes The World” is an important reminder that our political freedoms still hang in the balance every day.
Thollem and ACVilla will continue their travels thru November, releasing one new video per month, and Live Eye Tv looks forward to presenting their unique and important vision as they document the United States during this critical political season. To follow the pair more closely, make sure to visit their Silver Ochre site where you can subscribe to this serialized presentation of Who Are U.S., while learning more about the two artists behind this intriguing work.
