Jordan Strafer

Some kind of thing is going to happen. I think we might be flying over Florida. The inrushing air sounds like a waterfall.

I’m with the men. I’m lying down and they are standing up. One of them has diamond brooches on his shirt. Behind him there’s a pregnant woman and another man. One of them says, “put two fingers in your mouth and tell me a terrible story.”

I am wearing a short-sleeved mini dress. “He takes the joy out of everything,” I think to myself as he waits for the story. Then I say with my mouth full, “No matter how bad things are, they could always get worse. And behind every cloud… there's a lot of rain.” He says, “You’re kidding.” I pause and say, “Happy birthday daddy. This flight is an explosive bomb.”

The group is laughing. I think to myself, “I am really funny.” I say, “Let's tell each other something about ourselves.” Everyone starts butting in. I say, “Hold on, hold on. Let’s go in a circle.”

Then we make a circle of different things becoming the same thing. I dance on the line of this circle, but I do not cross it. It is lit only from the inside.

“For the love of horror puppets and reenacting trauma,” Participant Inc begins 2022 with Punchline, a solo exhibition by Brooklyn-based video artist Jordan Strafer that will premiere the artist’s new video and related works on paper. Ambitious but not obnoxious, Strafer’s recently completed video work Peak Heaven Love Forever is based on a true story of kinship and betrayal aboard a transatlantic air ambulance from London to Miami. Including life-size dolls and starring live actors (in order of appearance) Marti Wilkerson, Jim Fletcher, Alexandro Segade, and Cammisa Buerhaus, the video is a psychological thriller that takes place in flight—while time moves glacially, reality becomes suspended.

Peak Heaven Love Forever

Written and Directed by Jordan Strafer

Cast: Cammisa Buerhaus, Jim Flectcher, Alexandro Segrade, Marti Wilkerson

Producers: Jordan Strafer, Lizz Astor, Emir West

Assistant to the Director: Emir West

Director of Photography: Carl Knight

Assistant Camera: Godfred Sedano

B camera & Sound Recording: Larry Bovik

Gaffer: Collin Leitch

Set Electric: Jonah Peterschild

Lead Props & Costumes: Vita Kurland

Props: Anne Cousineau, Chloe Cerabona, Dante Hussein, Mariana Sanchez

Lead Makeup: Caroline Mills

Makeup: Aine Vonnegut

Makeup Assistant: Dante Hussein

Production Assistant: Carlos Negron

Original Soundtrack: Wibke Tiarks

VFX: Alex Bliss

Sound mix: Aron Sanchez

Color: Alex Zandi

Flight path animation: Aron Sanchez

Production stills: Mariana Sanchez

Movie Poster printed co-designed by Inpatient Press

Supported by:

Participant Inc

The Renaissance Society

Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant

Rocking R

Elissa Mogilefsky & Len Weiselberg

Matthew Goedecke

Bruce Hainley

Kabir Carter

AK Burns

Special Thanks:

Lia Gangitano

Glen Fogel

Jonathan Berger

Lazar Bozic

Brook Nicholas

Kyle Dancewicz

Sohrab Mohebbi

Isabel Mallet

Alex Zandi

Alan Segal

Bill Dietz

Bard MFA

John Brattin

T De Long

Harry Kleeman

Andrew Norman Wilson

Marbles

Juliana Garcia

In Loving Memory of Holly Skolnick & Guy Strafer

Concurrently, Jordan Strafer will occupy Home Gallery as the first organizational partnership between Participant and Home.

Jordan Strafer’s Peak Heaven Love Forever will be streamed on Renaissance TV, an online platform and production fund created by the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago and dedicated to moving image.

Jordan Strafer’s Peak Heaven Love Forever was supported, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant and by the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago through Renaissance TV.