Those That, at a Distance, Resemble Another

Not all reproductions are mechanical, even in our age of digital imagery, 3D printing, and instantaneous communication. It is still necessary to create physical facsimiles of various artifacts of material culture, such as fossils, ancient pottery, and tools. These objects are, after all, documents, and must as such be backed up, like any archive. There is too much global knowledge at stake to make a fetish of the original.
Jessica Sarah Rinland’s debut feature could be considered a “museum procedural.” Focusing intently on the process of reproducing an elephant tusk, the film moves out in multiple directions, examining the processes by which cultural objects are duplicated, displayed, and restored. While these processes are highly technical, there remains an artisanal aspect to these efforts, which Rinland emphasizes with her frequent close-ups on the activities of hands. Exhibiting affinities with the late Harun Farocki, Rinland attends to the intimate details of work, showing us that the production of cultural memory is, ultimately, a process of collective labor. (Michael Sicinski)

In the presence of Jessica Sarah Rinland.