Flora, a seamlessly synchronized two-channel video with sound, spotlights the life of Flora Mayo, a previously unknown American artist with whom the renowned Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti had a love affair while she was studying in Paris in the 1920s. Mayo is mentioned only fleetingly in the widely disseminated Giacometti biography by James Lord, first published in 1985, in which Lord ignored her identity as an artist. A 1927 photo of the two artists together in Paris, flanking a portrait bust by Mayo of Giacometti, sparked Hubbard / Birchler’s curiosity and subsequent detective work to locate any trail of her life and art and restore her to history. The film weaves together fictional and documentary material through poignant footage of 82-year-old David Mayo, her only remaining descendant. This dramatization performed by actors and presented in black and white forms one half of Flora. The other side of the screen features a documentary interview with David, in color. His account of Mayo’s life communicates a deep sympathy for this intelligent and rebellious woman, who rejected a life of privilege in her native Denver and traveled to Paris to pursue her artistic ambitions. Returning to the States, she settled in Los Angeles and supported herself and her son David through a series of menial jobs until her death. Flora is structured as a multifaceted, interwoven dialogue—between Mayo and Giacometti, a mother and son, her life as an artist and factory worker, Paris and Los Angeles, and between past and present.
