Site-specific installation with a fan
(approximate dimensions: B 13 X H 17 X D 12 inches) and video Installation dimensions: variable Video: 5 minutes loop Ed 1/3
Through observations, highlighting the dimension of air, YOU, ME AND SOMETHING ELSE, 2009 portrays the impermanence and transient nature of this element and its relationship to all creatures. Normally what we assume to be a fixed and solid form is actually a dynamic process.
Through this multi-sensory, three-dimensional experience, I have employed the use of video to describe a smooth, simplified subject which one must navigate at close range. This technique is reminiscent of early experimental film and was used as a way to explain the visual contrast between flatness and depth.
The act of viewing becomes a form of sensuous contact rather than a disembodied process; moving through physical space. Here, I have set the stage to guide the viewer on this multi-dimensional experience and as a result the viewer is drawn into a visceral intimacy with the film’s subject. When our eyes move across this richly textured surface of fur, randomly focusing; making us wonder what we are actually seeing, they are functioning like organs of touch.
During this quest to understand the ethereal nature of air, I have drawn a correlation to touch. We, man and animal alike, use touch as a way to re-affirm our reality. I suggest that there is a deeper subconscious desire to come to terms with the transient nature of all things that surround us, including air. Touch is a crucial part of how we define space. While viewers witness touch on a two-dimensional surface, they are immediately drawn into the three-dimensional experience by the slight sensation of a breeze created by a fan. These ideas about touch have been expanded to describe our relationship with animals and that touch not only defines space but also identifies us and the other. I leave room to contemplate this notion that the resolve to touch is a way for us to deal with the complexity and transient nature of our lives. To be touched is to be known.
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