ARTIST STATEMENT: I am a filmmaker and performance artist, and primarily make experimental videos rooted in language and the performative body. I externalize the intimate, interior experiences of shame and anxiety, articulating these feelings so as to release them from the repressed psyche. Humor and absurdity are common tools I employ to make people feel comfortable confronting uncomfortable realities. Hopefully by airing out my own shameful anxieties, I make legible for others their own ‘intimate interiors.’ Within this context, my films are explicitly feminist in perspective and explore issues such as gender, bodies, climate change, consumerism and language. I often center the performance around my own body, using it as a vehicle to reflect society’s projected fantasies and desires, and to celebrate the imaginative and grotesque.
My background is in theater, and in my videos I often nod to a vaudevillian tradition. I like to play with the expansive language of theatre inside the limitations of the digital video screen, creating theatrical, surreal and claustrophobically self-contained worlds. I employ a ‘homemade’ aesthetic; papier mache, construction paper and cardboard build out the visual landscape. Rather than use the magic of filmmaking to make ‘accurate’ representations, I prefer to exploit the potential of the lens to make the minutiae visible and the digital tactile.
Questions For a Dinosaur 2017 Still from HD Video 9 minute video By Rachel Garber Cole, shot by Jordan Levie.
In this video, I ask a dinosaur 104 questions about extinction.
Questions For a Dinosaur 2017 Still from HD Video 2017 By Rachel Garber Cole, shot by Jordan Levie.
In this video, I ask a dinosaur 104 questions about extinction.
Questions For a Dinosaur 2017 Still from HD Video 9 minute video By Rachel Garber Cole, shot by Jordan Levie.
In this video, I ask a dinosaur 104 questions about extinction.
The Boyfriend: 01 Perfect Young Ladies 2016 Still from HD Video 9 minute video
The Boyfriend: 01 Perfect Young Ladies 216 Still from HD Videot 9 minute video
The Boyfriend: 04 Fancy Forgetting 2017 Still from HD Video 3 minute video
The Boyfriend: 06 Sur la Plage 2017 Still from HD Video 3 minute video
The Boyfriend: 09 Safety in Numbers 2017 Still from HD Video 4 minute video
The Boyfriend: 11 Never Too Late to Fall in Love 2018 Still from HD Video 4 minute video
Monsters and Animals 2015 Still from HD Video 10 minute video By Rachel Garber Cole
Shot by Kimberlee Venable
A short film about a young woman who has trouble connecting with the outside world.
Monsters and Animals 2015 Still from HD Video 10 minute video By Rachel Garber Cole
Shot by Kimberlee Venable
A short film about a young woman who has trouble connecting with the outside world.
Hard Asking Out a Barista 2016 Still from HD Video 3 minute video Music Video
"Hard Asking Out a Barista"
Cody Westphal
from the album "What Selling Out Is And Why It Feels Bad"
Full Stop Art
Directed by Rachel Garber Cole
Shot by Jordan
Pregnant and Dying 2013 Still from HD Video 10 minute video By Rachel Garber Cole
Directed by Rachel Garber Cole and Johnson Henshaw
Shot by Jordan Levie
Edited by Jesse Ruuttila
A short film in which I play all the characters, shot in front of rear scre
Pregnant and Dying 2013 Still from HD Video 10 minute video By Rachel Garber Cole
Directed by Rachel Garber Cole and Johnson Henshaw
Shot by Jordan Levie
Edited by Jesse Ruuttila
A short film in which I play all the characters, shot in front of rear scre
Pregnant and Dying 2013 Still from HD Video 10 minute video By Rachel Garber Cole
Directed by Rachel Garber Cole and Johnson Henshaw
Shot by Jordan Levie
Edited by Jesse Ruuttila
A short film in which I play all the characters, shot in front of rear scre
Squirrels Are Getting Really Fat Because of the Unseasonably Warm Winter 2016 Still from HD Video 5 minute video By Rachel Garber Cole
Shot by Kimberlee Venable
In this video I play four characters (the vampire, the opera singer, the crying woman, and the monster) who play in front of built construction pape
Squirrels Are Getting Really Fat Because of the Unseasonably Warm Winter 2016 Still from HD Video 5 minute video By Rachel Garber Cole
Shot by Kimberlee Venable
In this video I play four characters (the vampire, the opera singer, the crying woman, and the monster) who play in front of built construction pape
Birthday Suit 2016 Still from HD Video 6 minute Video by Rachel Garber Cole
shot by Jordan Levie
A woman receives a mysterious package on her birthday.
News 2014 / 2017 Still from HD Video 6 minute video by Rachel Garber Cole, collaboration with sound artist Giancarlo Colaianni
shot: Jordan Levie
Installation: Rachel Garber Cole
I put the video on the bottom of a drawer in metal filing cabinet. Whe
News (Installation View) 2017 Metal Filing Cabinet with Video Monitor in top drawer 6 minute video by Rachel Garber Cole, collaboration with sound artist Giancarlo Colaianni
shot: Jordan Levie
Installation: Rachel Garber Cole
Installation view + video. I put the video on the bottom of a drawer i