The James Bond Series

The James Bond Series (1999–2000)

In this early suite of five video works, I explore themes of gender performance, media saturation, and the psychological dissonance between image and narrative. Inspired in part by the stylized title sequences of James Bond films—where silhouetted women and villains drift alongside the iconic spy, armed and alluring—I reimagine these motifs through a feminist, surrealist lens.

Each piece layers silhouetted figures—performed by myself and collaborator, Anna Pedersen —over found footage from television, public service announcements, and fitness media, producing jarring, surreal juxtapositions that destabilize meaning and expectation.

The first three works in the series—Wild Things, j.a.n.e., and Playing Smart—feature cowgirl and “mousegirl” avatars engaged in sinister pantomimes with toy guns. These performative actions unfold over inverted and manipulated video backdrops, including PSAs about school violence and aerobics instruction, disrupting the moral clarity such materials traditionally convey.

The final two videos shift into stop-motion animation. In boytoy, twin women in prom dresses wind up a suited male figure, who becomes an object of manipulation before exiting—leaving the women to turn their aggression inward. A Good Man is Hard to Find reimagines Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes through a Disney-esque animated figure, collapsing historical violence, gendered trauma, and cultural iconography into a darkly ironic cartoon mise-en-scène.

Together, the James Bond Series marks the emergence of my long-standing interest in digital collage, narrative fragmentation, and the subversion of media archetypes—setting the stage for a practice that has continued to evolve at the intersection of the analog body and algorithmic culture.

Studio Acknowledgements:
Performers: Anna Pedersen + Carla Gannis
Camera: Daniel Leveson, Jared Katsiane + Bob Griffin
Editing Assistance: Murphy Gurganus