The camera hovers through the engine compartment of an ancient car I found rotting in the forest. The huge rusted out engine covered in mosses and fungi is reminiscent of an elaborate set for a Gothic science fiction movie. My intention was to make a video in ironic celebration of the increasingly inexplicable human obsession with the automobile, while simultaneously paying tribute to the transformative power of nature. Set in the temperate rain forest of North America’s Pacific West Coast the video, may perhaps, remind us that it was hereabouts that the V8 Mercury was once the ambassador of the Ford Motor Corporation, the family vehicle of choice, and an essential player in the ritual of courtship and romantic love. Accordingly, the first verse of the lyrics from Mercury Blues appears after the closing titles of the video.

Mercury Blues (excerpt)

Well if I had money
Tell you what I’d do
I’d go downtown and buy a Mercury or two
Crazy ’bout a Mercury
Lord I’m crazy bout a Mercury
I’m gonna buy me a Mercury
And cruise it up and down the road

Well the girl I love
I stole her from a friend
He got lucky, stole her back again
She heard he had a Mercury
Lord she’s crazy ’bout a Mercury
I’m gonna buy me a Mercury
And cruise it up and down the road………..

K. C. Douglas and Robert Geddins 1948