The Art of Jay Sims

A Series of Small Victories

• Date: 2011
• Medium: Digital Video
• Format: HD digital video file, color, sound
• Duration: 16 minutes, 57 seconds

A Series of Small Victories is a documentary film directed and edited by Jay Sims, capturing a live performance by Edward Setina that took place on October 8, 2011, in Dallas, Texas. While the performance itself was ephemeral—physical, raw, and seen only by those gathered on the street or in an adjacent gallery—this film preserves and reframes it as a durational cinematic work.

The performance consisted of Setina smashing through ten consecutive, reinforced walls within a temporary installation space. Audience members could not enter the space during the event but observed via a projected live feed or through the storefront windows. Sims' video, however, offers a layered and immersive view, constructed from footage shot simultaneously by multiple cameras: one outside capturing Setina’s entrance and early action; three roaming cameras inside tracking his movement and physical struggle; and a single overhead rig that provided a top-down view of one key moment.

The result is an orchestrated visual record that moves beyond simple documentation. Through its edit, A Series of Small Victories explores the relationship between body, endurance, and environment—drawing out the spatial rhythms and quiet ruptures of the performance itself. Sims’ directorial approach shapes the material into something cinematic and self-contained, emphasizing the evolving architecture of destruction and the tension between isolation and spectacle.

Though the action is unscripted, the film imposes a formal frame: it opens with a spare textual introduction and unfolds with a restrained, observational tone, letting the collapse of barriers—literal and metaphorical—play out in real time. What remains is a space transformed, and a gesture committed to permanence through the act of filming.