Jessica Segall

Human Energy, 2023

4 Channel video and installation: 30 min loops,

Link to video clip from installation

Human Energy explores our addictive, intimate relationship with oil. Scenes are shot in the largest extractive zones in the US where I filmed inside a Chevron Oil field that used to be a gay cruising site. These scenes are interspersed with quiet bathing scenes, shot in Azerbaijan, where bathing in crude oil is a medicinal practice. Appropriating the Chevron slogan, Human Energy, this work examines perversion in its various forms: from capitalist exploitation of natural resources to queer relations which are policed in Azerbaijan and under threat in the US. Human Energy relates to my long-term research into environmental conservation, energy production, endurance performance and queer ecology. 

The installation at Smack Mellon in 2023 unfolded as a multi-channel video installation. The installation featured sound design by DJ, producer, and Berghain resident Steffi, that transformed the field recordings of oil extraction into a melancholic dance track, and sculptural elements that mimic oil field pipeline expansion loops. The installation situated extraction in Smack Mellon’s architecture—a nineteenth-century boiler space—which once provided fuel and power for the entire neighborhood.

Drone and oil field DP: Zefrey Throwell

Phantom DP: Steve Romano

Music: Steffi

Performers, LA: Kim Darling, Jon Ryan Heilman, Peter Kalisch, Troy Penn, Max Sanchez

Performers AZ: Ramil Aliev, Ilqar Aydin, Nigar Ibrahimbeyli, Elnur Musayev

Human Energy was made possible with support from a Guggenheim Fellowship, CEC Artslink, the New York State Council on the Arts through fiscal sponsor Artist Alliance and, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, and in part through by Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center through the Artist-In-Residence Program. Special thanks to Salaam Cinema, Leyli Gafarova and Aynur Abutalibova.