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‘this wood, is fake’

“this wood, is fake.” restages the bakery scene from the 1986 rom-com Moonstruck, with Calabrese performing all six characters and hand-building the sets, props, and costumes. The project was created in two forms: a single-channel video and a live performance.

For the video, Calabrese recreated the scene shot-for-shot, filming each character individually and later editing her footage into the original film, replacing the scene entirely. In the live version, she performed as Ronny (Nicolas Cage) within the handmade set, while videos of the remaining five characters played on TV monitors throughout the space—appearing as her co-stars.

The re-edited video is not documentation of the live piece but an echo of it, merging both versions into a layered reflection on performance and reproduction.