SALISE HUGHES

Artist, Filmmaker, Armchair Anthropologist

A self-proclaimed cinephile, Salise Hughes is a visual artist who manipulates found film footage to create images that transcend traditional mediums. The resulting work is a study in play, decay, and recycling, in which Hughes reimagines and reframes both the banal (like the ephemeral, impressionistic sketches of daily life made on her iPhone) as well classic works of cinema that have made indelible imprints on our collective consciousness. 

“My method of working is to digitally erase found or repurposed footage then reedit into my own narratives,” says Hughes. “This can become tedious since I need to erase each frame of film in a sequence. It usually takes about three months to complete a three to four minute film. To blow off steam during this process I do something completely different and shoot one take videos on my phone. This started when I would occasionally take long bus rides from Seattle to Portland and I’d just point the phone against the window and shoot. It’s very freeing since there’s no mental process involved; I’m only responding to my surroundings.”