Film
Mail Art
about the art
Checking In brings together two works that explore the different voices we carry within ourselves. Through film, drawing, and acts of reflection, composer-filmmaker Gillian Rae Perry and visual artist Samantha Roth consider how we navigate the conversations between different parts of ourselves and how these inner dialogues shape the way we move through the world. Together, these works suggest that true understanding begins not by silencing competing thoughts, but by learning to listen to them.
Gillian Rae Perry's film, Checking In, traces a period of grief and recovery by exploring the contrast between what we tell others and what we tell ourselves. Throughout the work, typed text illustrates reassuring messages shared with others, while handwritten journal entries gradually reveal a more vulnerable internal dialogue. Through repetition and layering spoken text, birdsong, humming, music, and intimate images of domestic spaces, Gillian creates an experience that reflects the unpredictable path of grief. Rather than arriving at a neat resolution, the film suggests that healing is an ongoing process shaped by time, reflection, and finding connection.
Samantha Roth's drawing, Hi, Hi, is part of a body of work that explores modes of reflection, both literal and contemplative. The image draws from a cognitive behavioral therapy exercise in which the older self (dominant hand) comforts the younger self (non-dominant hand). The mirroring between the left and right sides of the drawing evokes an internal dialogue — between parts of the self, the brain’s hemispheres, and past and present. By creating layers of colored pencil on dark paper, Samantha transforms this gesture into a meditation on attention, compassion, and the ongoing practice of checking in with oneself.