Phyllis Baldino: Hit thegroundrunning, February 24, 2026

The great artist Phyllis Baldino graduated from the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford as a dedicated sculptor. But a few years later, a chance encounter with a generous subletter with a trunk full of video cameras changed the course of her life. She began making video pieces on her Sony Handycam in the early 90s in what would become the remarkable "Gray Area Series." Inspired by books about fuzzy logic, each video records a sequence of actions by Baldino on common household objects that are—sometimes aggressively—deconstructed and repurposed. In "Wine Rack/Not Wine Rack," for example, a wooden thrift store wine rack is sawed up to accommodate a 4L jug of blush wine. In "April 1994: The Gray Band," Baldino gathered together four musician friends, Dez Cadena, Lynn Johnston, Tom Watson, and Mike Watt, to reconstruct instruments that she disassembled and play a single song: Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive.” Baldino's musical selection for the show includes great songs from each of these artists as well as music that has influenced her work or been included in her work. Baldino's abiding interest in the intersection of science and the everyday has led to fascinating works about nanotechnology ("Nano-cadabra," 1998), quantum mechanics ("Baldino-Neutrino," 2003), and parallel universe theory ("19 Universes/my brother," 2004). She has been exploring issues of climate change in works like "u_n_d_e_r_w_a_t_e_r," 2019 and "Fake Nature Box," 2021. It was through research on the Little Ice Age (1300 - 1850) that Baldino arrived at the process that is powering her current body of work. Learning about horrific stories of women accused of witchcraft and weather magic instilled in her the desire to speak firsthand with witnesses to the events. So she turned to an experienced friend and a Ouija board to find out what really happened: "whether weather what" was the result. Continuing this process led to "Hit thegroundrunning," 2025, about immigrants to the US who came through Ellis Island in New York as children. What is it like communicating with the dead? Listen in to find out! We discuss all this work as well as some of the vicissitudes of making video art. It’s a fascinating conversation with a truly unique artist. Information about the work can be found on www.phyllisbaldino.com.