Central Heat Exchange's "Tulips at my Bedside" Video

The video for Central Heat Exchange’s “Tulips at my Bedside “ was made using over 5,000 risographed images. Each clip was taken on an iPhone, separated into frames in Photoshop, then laid into grids of eight to be printed, scanned, and pieced back together.

Most of the original clips were taken on neighborhood walks and rare trips to nature outside of Chicago in the Spring and Fall of 2020. I used the footage as an opportunity to revisit those spaces in a slow, methodical process, which proved to be an especially welcome routine during an otherwise restless year. I also learned to welcome any project that was 1% idea, and 99% labor, or execution of idea (this is also true of cooking, crocheting, and gardening, all of which provide the same satisfactory feeling as when I clipped together this video). “Tulips” similarly evokes an era of self-reflection, where the work is solitary and seemingly banal, but a crucial and valuable process of life.

Pulling all the weeds out
Growing all the time

Central Heat Exchange, also born of isolation, is a collaborative project by musicians spread throughout the US & Canada, primarily in the central time zone. “Tulips” began as a bare bones 4-track cassette recording and was sent around amongst friends, eventually solidifying as a full-fledged collaboration between Central Heat Exchange, Abby Black, and Winnipeg legends Living Hour.

Below you’ll find some of the prints before they were cropped for the final animation, as well as some selected stills.

— Clare Byrne