1996, Hi-8 videotape, color, sound, 15 mins.

The final installment of the trilogy that includes I'll Walk with God (1994) and Acceleration (1993). Cross-referencing early 20th century women's histories with iconized models of Christian indoctrination, and using a modern billboard as a point of departure, Archimedes' Screw playfully distills and reconfigures contemporary notions of spirituality and public vs. private identity. As the documentary-style structure of the video begins to unravel and the personal histories become increasingly implausible, the women portrayed become unwitting participants in an iconography of worship and idealized femininity, unfairly transformed into corporate commodities by the banality of the public sphere. Undermining its own narrative authority, Archimedes' Screw gently evokes a sense of displaced and re-placed sanctification.