Whitney Biennial 2022: 
Quiet as It’s Kept

Floor 5

Born 1990 in New York, NY
Lives in Brooklyn, NY

Jacky Connolly created Descent Into Hell through two different forms of technology. She realized some scenarios as photorealistic 3D animations, incorporating AI image enhancement and “deep fake” audiovisual techniques. For others, she filmed within a modified version of the video game Grand Theft Auto V. The game engine’s built-in editor stores player-recorded scenes as data, which can be altered and sequenced. For example, Connolly removes most of the signs of graphic violence for which the game is notorious, instead turning toward the minor characters and ambient details of its virtual setting. She has described the narrative arc of the video as “a woman is alone in her apartment in an empty, abandoned world. This opens onto a story of a woman in an alternate timeline on a journey through California. She rides freight trains, explores hidden corners of the city, and encounters strange happenings along the way.” Connolly named the video after a novel by Doris Lessing featuring an amnesiac whose body lies in a hospital bed while his mind roams elsewhere.