Title: Stuck (Baby J)

Description: Ultrachrome pigment print. This piece is based on the story of baby Jessica who fell down a well in Texas. Her community rallied to save her, and her story was conveyed live on TV news. I began by working with a medium-format camera and macro lens but soon switched to digital for its more synthetic or 'slick' look. I constructed miniature sets in my studio out of scraps of felt and paper, bits of twisted wire, and lots of glitter. Then I lit the whole ensemble with colored gels, as though from the most over-the-top music videos or pop cliches. The final, highly saturated prints are small-like the TV in my childhood kitchen-and printed on high-gloss paper in the 3:4 aspect ratio of analog television.

Artist Bio: Cassie Riger is a Los Angeles based multimedia artist. Her work explores the interplay of experience, technology, and cultural history. Riger is the recipient of grants from the California Arts Council, Women's Center for Creative Work, and the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts. Solo exhibitions of her work have been presented at Pitzer College Art Galleries, Northwestern University, Room Gallery, and Right Window gallery. Group exhibitions include Arm Gallery, Queer Biennial, Plan B Art Fair (Iceland), FOCA, Agency Contemporary, For Your Art, SomArts, and Artists Television Access. Riger has published writing on photography, film, and video in Camerawork: A Journal of Photographic Arts, ArtWeek, Art Ltd., and other publications. She has taught video, digital photography, and creative writing to undergraduates and high school students at UCLA and UC Irvine. She was born in Rochester, NY, and received an MA from the University of Chicago and an MFA from the University of California, Irvine.

Artist Website: www.cassieriger.net