WASHINGTON, DC.- The National Museum of Women in the Arts presents Soda_Jerk: After the Rainbow, on view Sept. 19–Nov. 2, 2014, as part of Washington, D.C.’s largest public art program. Presented as part of 5x5, a project of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH), this spotlight exhibition presents a video installation by Soda_Jerk, a two-person art collective from Sydney, Australia. Developed through sampling, a technique of appropriating segments from music, videos and film, After the Rainbow (2009) combines film clips from The Wizard of Oz (1939) and a 1960s television special starring Judy Garland. The work interweaves the fantasy world of cinema with the complex reality of Garland’s life.

By borrowing, re-sequencing and manipulating clips from films and television, Soda_Jerk demonstrates how sampling can serve as a kind of re-animation of the dead. Instead of the famed twister that takes Garland’s Dorothy character to Oz, the young Garland is transported to the future, where she meets her disillusioned older self.

After the Rainbow is the second work in Soda_Jerk’s Dark Matter series, an ongoing cycle of video installations that the artists describe as “séance fictions.” Each installation presents an encounter between the younger and older selves of a deceased screen star.“

"NMWA is pleased to partner with the DCCAH for a second year and to present the After the Rainbow video installation as part of the 5x5 project,” said NMWA Chief Curator Kathryn Wat. “Combining digital media and celluloid clips in a labor-intensive process, Soda_Jerk constructs startling new narratives from familiar cultural sources. They also engage directly with contemporary debates about copyright and image accessibility.” -