Sam Norton
When Love Is Not Enough

In Sam Norton’s black and white moving image installation, a leggy stork traces small movements across one side of the work. On the other side of the screen, his dance partner is a stick protruding from rippled water, angled against a softly flowing current. Independent from each other, the bird and stick have a peaceful banality. Yet side by side, their separation is turned into a mirror. In placing these scenes together, Norton enacts the classical equation: two hearts are always better than one. Her work deals in this currency, giving pause to that which is otherwise degraded or ordinary to remind that these are also the truest and purest, the parts we might learn the most from.

Excerpt from essay by Jane Wallace, Silver Screen, B.214 Bulletin Spring 2023