Katherine Bauer

Ever wondered how to crystallize the body of a cat? Here M.M. Serra's dark and ethereal exploration of counterculture and body manipulation extends to the animal kingdom. Artist Katherine Bauer recites her recipe for Crystallum, her playfully witchy process of growing crystals on the carcass of her deceased feline friend, Pickles. Bauer also quotes "The Torture Garden," the 19th Century French novel by Octave Mirbeau, accompanied by the dirge of heavy rock music. Serra's passion for finding cinematic beauty in the absurd and humor in provocation make her work charming, singular and visceral.

Wandering the boardwalk of Coney Island, she loses herself in many islands and oceans.

The Egyptian Goddess Sekhmet is brought back from her long slumber on the wine of the Nile. She is defeated, shortly after sacrificing several felines and females in her bloody revenant rituals.

A spell is cast, a creature is born out of plant cells, into silver, through the salty waters, transmutes through claws up into the astral.

In and out of the eye, in and out of the mouth, in and out of the flesh. Blood pulsing as cells split and gems are passed in and out of the body. Transfiguration's of the bodily dejecta. Where does the self end and the other begin?

Love is what lies beneath.

Those guys who shows their nose in the fall among the dead leaves with their weird and special shape usually finish in our meal but today your ears and eyes will be full of them… 2x 16mm film

Inspired by San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant located on a Southern California State Beach that was recently shut down due to a fatal crack. Nuclear cleavage, unknowable geographies as numerous as the granules of sand, gesturing toward the infinite loop.

T.V. fuzz to the crystal buzz of the New York City street lights at night.

Processed with eucalyptus, aloe, sage, and bee pollen from the region of Mexico outside of Guadalajara where the film was imbued by the shapes of the area’s plants, water and temples.

See what slimy creatures sneak up on Blanche’s feet during her walk on the beach! 2 x 16mm film

Film with the infusion of the sea. Developed with seaweed from the ocean where it was filmed in Brittany and ashes from the oven of the pizzeria next to the beach. The forms of marine life aggregate and make rise with the tide a starry and fundamental rouge.

A selection from: 16mm hand processed and crystalized color reversal film 2012 A film of frame by frame rephotographed footage from my studio and my other films.