LADIES.

Single channel HD video, color, stereo,
2:33 min., 2024

Stop motion, experimental animation (pixilation) created in response to the Boyer Campbell Building in Detroit for the Fiber Club Detroit exhibition (Sept. 2024), “Environments and Microclimates.”

Almost all sounds (and music) were created using a typewriter.

Music: MayorofDonutville

Featuring: Melanie Manos, Heidi Kumao

Animation, sound design, editing by Heidi Kumao

LADIES. is a site-specific, stop motion animation that responds to the history and structure of the Boyer Campbell Company’s building through slapstick and absurd situations. As a successful business supplying Detroit automotive industries with tools, supplies and safety equipment the company was described as a workplace devoid of women. However, the second floor “Ladies Room” indicates otherwise.

Referencing the stereotypical roles women might have played in this 20th century hierarchical organization, “LADIES.” uses physical comedy to imagine and disarm the invisible gender politics and power dynamics that existed in workplaces at that time. The typewriter doubles as a site of servitude and as an instrument of expression. The familiar sounds of typing are re-contextualized as percussive, melodic, and mechanical drivers of unexpected acts.

Shot on location at the Boyer Campbell building in Detroit, Michigan.