Collaborations

With filmmaker Jeremy Newman

The Dreaming Biome

A film by Jeremy Newman with music by Rachel Blythe Udell.

This experimental film immerses viewers in an imagined ecosystem where plants and animals from various locations co-exist through juxtaposition and video effects. The natural elements are familiar yet made to appear strange. There is beauty and wonder, but within a Surrealist nightmare. The pacing echoes the rhythms of life from the spider’s climb to the rabbit’s breath. Throughout the film, the ephemeral nature of things is palpable. These creatures are alive and they are already ghosts.

The Lost Garden

A film by Jeremy Newman with music by Rachel Blythe Udell.

This video focuses on the tension between the natural and built environments. The footage, while tethered to physical reality, is aestheticized through video effects. As a result, the familiar becomes strange. Flora and fauna are suspended in an altered state, one of non-existence. The architectural, distilled to form and pattern, is removed from function. Failed stewardship has transformed the planet that was once an Eden.

Melted Flowers

A film by Jeremy Newman with music by Rachel Blythe Udell.

This video of flowers in a rain storm has a painterly aesthetic without the use of video effects.

A Cosmos of Patterns

A film by Jeremy Newman with music by James Kalinoski

Fiber artist Rachel Blythe Udell combines elements inspired by the natural world in strange and fascinating arrangements. Her soft sculptures and embroideries are enlivened through bold juxtapositions of color, shape and texture. Yet, their whimsical appearance is deceptive. Having lost her mother to cancer, Udell’s artwork is a personal meditation on biological connectedness.