Metabolisms In Space

As the viewer walks in through the front door, they step through a set of black curtains that correspond to the dark mirrored acrylic surfaces that sit at an angle in the corners of the space; or the black back side of the projection screen surface from the piece When Is Tomorrow; or the black curtains that frame the wall onto which the shortest video titled Blip is projected. These elements denote a kind of theatricality where the tensions amongst nonhuman elements unfold.  As one of the video projections goes dim, the others take on a different hue, and alternate at their own tempo. With each piece reaching its maximum brightness at different times, the spaces is activated differently at each moment in time. Although the workings behind the set-up of the installation are not hidden, the materials transcend their everyday objectness and instead take on an entropic position. In a way, the black curtains or the black acrylic corner pieces allude to portals, where the reflection of the subject in the acrylic brings to mind the aperture of the camera tying it back to the projected videos in the space.

Each of the video projections has an unconventional method of display - either mapped out onto a curved surface of a cloth screen, or in the case of Parergon (Soft Sculpture), a trapezoidal angled particle board, the imagery becomes spatially disorienting. From behind the trapezoidal surface, a soft silicone light box continues the logic of the virtual light box in the projection. Although this rectangular silicone form is mimicking the rectangular form in the video, the silicone appears as a soft sculpture further subverting and complicating the read of the piece. The element of softness in the silicone breaks the rigid language of the hard edged tradition of the late 20th century minimalism, thus subjecting the canonized monolith to a feminist critique. Suddenly the hierarchical logic of verticality is disrupted by the fleshy quality of the silicone bringing to mind western fallibility in regards to cannons of the sublime. Here it is also important to note the architectural implication, where the support and spatial positioning of Parergon (Soft Sculpture) is by/in a corner. This location for the piece draws attention to cultural context created by the last half century of western art history dominated by white male artists.