An Elegant Utility Video Suite mines the experience of a family and community undergoing radical change. Named after Inye’s exhibition, ‘An Elegant Utility’, exhibited at the Northwest African American Museum in 2017, each of these videos is a more complicated exploration of the themes interrogated in that show. The stories range from the Inye’s sense of connection and isolation as family members depart, the search for continuity of values and vision across generations, to a negotiation with the larger political forces shaping the changes in the neighborhood he continues to call home.
While drawing heavily on Inye’s training as a journalist and practice as a documentary filmmaker, each video is its own formal experiment in storytellingFrom the meandering reminiscence of extended Green Family life by relatives in ‘Storytellers’, to the multivalent recollection of a singular encounter in ‘Constructing Silence’, or the methodical, first person unpacking of financial realities in ‘A Tale of Two Ledgers’, every video stands alone while also working together to tell a more nuanced story. Some as a part of larger exhibition pieces, some for inclusion as stand alone pieces in group shows, others on commission by government agencies interested in a different voice on policy issues. The diversity of genres in this collection reflects Inye’s attempt to grapple with the true scope and complexity of all the ways one person experiences displacement, communal loss, and resilience in the face of it all. Each video was produced independently over the course of five years.
The pieces are assembled on this page as a way of mapping the ideas that dominated Inye’s creative energy and output since 2008. ‘Ember of A Watery Dream’ and ‘Series One: One Verse’ are two videos not listed on this page that are still very much a part of this line of experimental video storytelling. The two-channel video that comprised the heart of ‘This Is Who We Are’ is also a part of this creative inquiry.
View the other works here:
‘Ember of A Watery Dream’
‘Series One: One Verse’
‘This Is Who We Are’
An Elegant Utility: Constructing Silence
What happens when family members who have lived together for generations are forced to move. Who gets left behind and what happens to them? This video confronts the clash of values over homes as commodities or places that anchor our society.
This piece was originally produced as a stand alone contribution to ‘BOOM: Changing Seattle’ , a group exhibition produced collaboratively by Design in Public and the Seattle Architecture Foundation for the Center for Architecture & Design.
Runtime: 6:05
Created: 2016
Exhibited: 2016
An Elegant Utility: Storytellers
Imagine you had the time to slow down, be still and just listen. What could you learn about your neighbors, about yourself? This is a storytelling session about Black life in Seattle’s Central District as told by multiple generations of the extended Green Family. It unfolds like origami, like a quiet memory.
This piece was originally produced as the video artifact for ‘An Elegant Utility’, exhibited at the Northwest African American Museum.
Runtime: 45:30
Created: 2016-2017
Exhibited: 2017
An Elegant Utility: Building Across Generations
Never be surprised by what you learn about your own story when sharing it with others. In this piece Inye talks about learning more about his own family history from friends who saw ‘An Elegant Utility’. Helping him fill in historical gaps and sharing new facts, they revealed how much more complex the web of family and community connections were.
This piece was originally produced on assignment for The Seattle Channel as Inye’s personal reflection on his installation ‘An Elegant Utility’, exhibited at the Northwest African American Museum.
Runtime: 23:17
Created: 2017
Broadcast: 2017
An Elegant Utility: A Tale of Two Ledgers
Some stories are not so much about what happened as they are about feelings and revelations as events unfold. As a comparative history of homeownership between his grandfather and himself, this piece is about Inye’s shifting interior landscape as he navigates saving his family’s most iconic home in his rapidly gentrifying neighborhood during the aftermath of the 2008 mortgage apocalypse.
This piece was originally produced as a stand alone contribution to ‘LISTEN: It’s A Sound Show’ , an immersive one-night-only multimedia art event foregrounding the act of listening as a key element. Curated by Emily Pothast and Molly Mac, the event used various methods of inquiry to ask who (or what) we listen to, and why as a way of revealing the inherently politicized dynamic between the ‘speaker’ and the ‘listener’.
Runtime: 19:12
Created: 2017
Exhibited: 2017
An Elegant Utility: A Central Vision
It was inevitable that Inye’s exploration of the personal and political in the family’s story would collide head on with the politics of gentrification, development and displacement in Seattle. Without saying as much, Inye’s work is a critique of the commodification of homes in America and the national housing affordability crisis. This piece deploys elements of the Green Family story, alongside the stories of others in Seattle’s Black community, as a means of understanding how local government is attempting to respond to these issues.
This piece was commissioned by the City of Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD) on the cusp of city council passing the Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) law. As one of the most sweeping changes in land use legislation in over a generation, OPCD wanted a way to connect their intentions for MHA with the realities of community life. It is a tenuous line to tow, aligning personal stories with public policies. In this piece Inye approaches the prospect with equal parts caution and optimism.
Runtime: 31:48
Created: 2017-2018
Premiered: 2018