Elise Rasmussen,
The Year Without a Summer, 2020, 16 mm transferred to 4K and HD video, color, sound, 20 minutes 5 seconds.
Elise Rasmussen’s “Year Without a Summer” took her to multiple continents and into the creation of one of Western literature’s best-known books Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818). The artist’s research-based project joins personal experience, cultural history, and scientific discovery into a surprising, layered narrative. Speaking from Los Angeles, Rasmussen shares how she weaves disparate artistic and ecological threads together with a perspective afforded by the Covid-19 pandemic. “Year Without a Summer” will be on view at Toronto’s G44 Centre for Contemporary Photography from July 21 to August 21, and its titular film will screen at Night Gallery in Los Angeles on August 7.