Trevor Shimizu

Memoir

Trevor Shimizu

The text for this video is based on a mix of personal experience and local lore. I relate my negative childhood feelings about communes to my experience at the Rainbow Gathering. This led to my short lived interest in capitalist aesthetics and media. I began to read "The Futurist Manifesto", books by Ayn Rand, and "Dianetics". I also became involved with online dating through the "Village Voice" personals. I’d spend $25 for the opportunity to send around 10 messages or 20 winks. I went on a few dates, but nothing long term came of it. I became depressed and imagined a stand-in to introduce myself and tell amusing anecdotes, like I often found myself trying to do while on dates. This video was the imagined component for a signage style installation in a corporate lobby, as if I were the founder of the company.

Club

Trevor Shimizu

Trevor Shimizu

Writes Shimizu: "I used to work as a photographer hired by a website to promote NYC and the Hamptons nightlife. The promoters would hire the people I worked for to send me over to their party to take photos of the people there. I would go to 2-3 different clubs a night, 4 nights a week. The range in partygoers was pretty big. During my final few months with the company, I was mainly assigned to an after-party spot on Broadway called Pangaea. At Pangaea, I photographed Ice T, Sting, among others. The job, for the most part, was really fun. I drank so much Red Bull vodka."

Emotional Month

Trevor Shimizu

Trevor Shimizu

Studying to be an actor, I read a tragic monologue written by my friend, Nathan Frank (also the camera operator). I started making the video right before Y2K. It was a very uncertain time. This is around the time I painted my first intentionally performative self portrait, aka Me and Molly Ringwald.

Lonely Loser Trilogy: Mountain Bikes

Trevor Shimizu

My friend lent me his Google GLAS when it was still in promotion mode. I started wearing it around the house, shooting videos. It got really hot above my ear and didn’t shoot in the best quality. I didn’t really enjoy using this device. I started to imagine myself as a tech guy who gets into snowboarding, mountain biking, and skateboarding. These videos were shot from the perspective of this character.

What a Boring and Disappointing Life (brown)

Trevor Shimizu

Trevor Shimizu

I lived off Lombard Street in a private terrace apartment overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge for free. I had free rent because I was the caretaker for the owner of the building who lived upstairs. Her name was Stephanie Bauer. She was about 80 years old. It was a very ideal situation, except for the fact that my neighbor was a handsome French man who had loud sex most nights.