Close up of a pair of black dancers: A man stands behind a woman and looks at her neck

Three

Isaac Julien

  • Year 1996
  • Edition Edition 2/4
  • Material/Technique Single-channel video installation
  • Length 15' 55'' loop
  • Category Media Art
  • Collection Sammlung Goetz, Medienkunst, München

Isaac Julien’s Three explores love, desire, jealousy and loneliness, based on the story of a love triangle. In the short film, the British artist interweaves the complex web of relationships between two women and a man in a surreal dance performance. As co-founder of the Sankofa Film and Video Collective, Julien championed the development of an independent black film culture and became known for his films concerning black-male-gender issues. Yet, in contrast to his other works, this film focuses on a black woman, who is torn between her passionate love for her partner and her desire for a mysterious woman. 
The film was made in close collaboration with the choreographers Bebe Miller and Ralph Lemon, who also play the leading roles. British actress Cleo Sylvestre rattles the couple’s already unstable relationship while also infusing it a new dynamic. With Three, Isaac Julien succeeds in dissolving the boundaries between film, dance, theater and visual art, combining them instead in the work’s emotionally charged narrative.

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