​

The Little Green Gym

USA, 2013, HD video, 3:39
​Written, filmed, edited by Catalina Jordan Alvarez
Collaboration, performance & sculpture by Austin Reavis

​From the age of nine I grew up in the Cumberland Plateau region of Tennessee
a place I once thought had nothing to offer me.
But after living four years in New York City, and four years in Berlin
I came back to explore this area of the Appalachian mountains.
Beersheba Springs was one of those places I’d been told was special on the plateau.
When we heard about the Beersheba Springs Arts and Crafts Fair
a friend and I went to check it out.
It was quaint and reminiscent of an amish colonial village.
It has been a resort since the 19th century.
We visited a beautiful tiny museum.
Inside, among other things hung a black bonnet.
Had it been for mourning?
Later we walked to a tiny pistachio green cinderblock building called “The Little Green Gym.”
Inside the living-room-sized-space was caution tape
an assortment of weights and exercise machines
and a wood stove.