“See the Body Gone” (2023-2024)

My first thought in writing this essay was very simple, but it later created a lot of questions and trepidations. I just thought, “I need to talk about Chameleon Street.” The first problem was, how does one talk about Chameleon Street? It is this strange, mostly forgotten art project from the 90s—it’s hard to pin down by design; it was made by a man who never really made another film because critics and audiences simply did not give his work the time of day. And yet I was so captivated by it from the first time I watched it, and I needed to understand why. So that is what this essay is: a process of understanding “why,” and hopefully, it is able to impress that “why” onto anyone who chooses to read it. 

Throughout my two expository writing classes at NYU, I’ve found that this is almost always my process, which has made  writing essays like this so invigorating and healing. Until taking on my cinema studies minor in my junior year, I didn’t get to write about art anywhere else. And even when I did, there was nowhere like Professor Bromley’s class, where I could bring in the bizarre opening scene to Chameleon Street, some pages of Invisible Man, and an experimental hip-hop video and say, “This is my essay!” while having a professor tell me to go for it. Getting that “go for it” made everything a whole lot easier after that. There were times I had to backtrack, delete paragraphs, and at times I was basically pulling my hair out because I didn’t know what I was even saying anymore. These texts were challenging and hard to put together, and I had to think about parts of myself that I am ashamed of, moments in my life that are embarrassing to talk about. But Professor Bromley’s course gave me the confidence and ambition to take that on and explore it as passionately as I could. His feedback, encouragement, and guidance were invaluable in keeping me on the right track, and I am so grateful for it. 

I’d also like to thank Professor Michael Gillespie in the Cinema Studies department, who showed me Chameleon Street and gave me the inspiration to unashamedly care about it, even though not a lot of other people do.

Ayslin Exum is a rising senior from Phoenix, Arizona, in the College of Arts and Sciences studying psychology with minors in cinema studies and law and society. She’s taken to studying these subjects because of her fascination with their intersections: film may speak not only to our psychologies but also to the way our society is organized. Her interests have always blended the creative and analytical. She’s the president of NYU’s mock trial team as well as a passionate seamstress. Her greatest joys come from putting pieces together—whether it’s a legal case, an evening dress, or an essay like this one, which discusses the unique ways film and hip-hop can meet us in reality.