Nomads

“I fear nomads. I am afraid of them and afraid for them too.”

—Jane Bowles, “Camp Cataract” in My Sister’s Hand in Mine (New York: Ecco Press, 1978)

“Tom Kalin’s recent videos draw from literary quotations to instigate video corollaries. Inspiring this travelogue is a line from Jane Bowles. The figure of the nomad has recently been invoked to describe a number of modern phenomena, including the urban homeless, the artist, and the computer hacker—none of whom necessarily share a connection to the North African societies visited by Jane Bowles. But video is unique in its global scope, and Kalin employs the medium’s ability to transform our sense of time and space in this compelling depiction of the point of view of the traveler. Set to speed-metal, Nomads is not so much an invocation of itinerant tribes as a passing glance at the world as an image.”

—Jason Simon, Downsizing the Image Factory (travelling video exhibition)

This title is also available on Third Known Nest by Tom Kalin.