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Show
title: screaMachine
6
works presented: 4 projected installations with performance
elements; one wooden frame containing digital laser prints
on acetate; one quadraphonic audio work.
The
theme of the show is in reflecting the supernatural light
and sounds created by mankind in structures such as a
cathedral. The audio work, "Score for a Techno Cathedral",
refers directly to this in its title. This 'techno cathedral'
starts with a physical object shutting out the natural
light and transforming it, like a stained glass window,
into a supernatural colorful glow, called "City View".
"City
View" consists of 10 laser prints on acetate
mounted in a black wooden frame and set into the gallery
window (the rest of the windows are blacked out). Digitally
collaged images represent different Manhattan apartment
interiors, complete with their inhabitants and their accoutrements.
If you look hard, you can make out the shapes of the real
city through these images. "City View takes the light
and images from the city and converts it into a glowing
portrait of the city; it also provides the stained glass,
cathedral-like atmosphere appropriate for accompanying
the next piece "Drag"
which sits on the floor directly in front of "City
View".
"Drag"
consists of a data projection on the floor of the gallery.
Prior to the performance, it shows a mock open bible,
opened on the floor. The bible is between 8 and 10 feet
in size, and its text is clearly legible, revealing that
it is an amalgam of tracts from the real bible, all referring
to sexual rules and regulations, controlling female and,
to a lesser degree, male behavior. Gathered together,
the texts make for a synopsis of christianity's attitude
toward sexuality. During performance, the artist drags
a real bible, by means of a string attached to his penis,
across this image of the bible. As the real bible tracks
across the image, it apears to erase the image revealing
another image below. This new image is one of the artist
and wife, naked against a plush red fabric background,
involved in an embrace, loving but not pornographic. The
artist drags the bible in an inward spiral, slowly eating
away at the upper image and revealing the below until
all of the 'rules's are gone and sexual happiness remains.
After performance, a view of the performance in progress,
shot from directly overhead, is projected on the floor
and looped. The viewer sees the bible laid on the floor
as before, but now sees it being erased and reappearing,
only to be erased again.
Following
on from "Drag"s intimacy, on the wall to the
left of "City View", is a wall projection featuring
a 3d image of a rotating human heart floating next to
a large circle containing colorful animated sequences
made from CAT and MRI scans of the artist's wife's head.
The piece is titled "Without You" and,
during performance, the circle is projected onto the artist's
bare chest while the rotating heart is seen on the palm
of his raised right hand (as if giving an oath). "Without
You" is an afirmation of the artist's love for his
wife by investigating the pain of the hypothetical death
of her. Without her, his heart is excorporated, with the
images of her death (her skull) and her personality (her
brain) thaking its place in his empty chest.
"Entertainment",
opposite "Without You" takes the notion that
the entertainment industry and noticebly TV, has taken
the place of church and religious art by being the modern
conveyor of information and mythology. The installation
comprises two projections, one very large (8 - 10 feet)
showing soundbytes from TV (6pm - 7pm Monday evening channel
surfing, condensed to 72 clips making a total of 5 minutes);
the other tiny (6 inches), projected on a hanging piece
of opaque white plexiglass, shows an in-sync animated
variation of the TV clips. The viewer can see both at
once, and hear the shared inane dialog, but has to choose
which to watch. During performance, the artist replaces
the plexiglass screen, sitting in a chair, watching the
large tv images with the animated version projected onto
the back of his shaved head. The animation shows an interpreted
version of the original, complete with text commentary.
"Urban
Junglism" is presented as a full wall projection
(approx. 20 feet) at the end of the room. It shows a techno-society
where security cameras track 'suspicious activity'. The
artist is seen to grafitti the slogan "Information
Divide = Class War" on a number of locations with
cop vans and cars patroling the neighborhood. During performance
the artist enters the space in front of the projection
armed with a can of spray paint, proceeding to spray the
slogan onto the projection screen.
"Score
for a Techno Cathedral" ties all pieces together
by borrowing sounds and audio clips from the soundtracks
for each of the other pieces and combining them with other
material. The result is a quadrophonic audio work where
phrases, sounds and music parts ebb and flow, moving around
the room or fixed in one spot. Like the vaulted chambers
in cathedrals, it provides supernatural sound to the space.
All
pieces reflect the theme of techno-cathedral by the use
of technological light and sounds. Just as the stained
glass and vaulted chambers were the hi-tech of the past,
this cathedral boasts similar technological trickery without
the allocation of spirituality. It proposes that this
society, matured from the mythologies of the past, have
latched onto the entertainment industry as its new church.
While indulgent in technological advance, it also recognises
the dangers of this advance as shown in "Urban Junglism"
and suggests that rather than need a new deity, represented
by technology, we need to be the boss and have the technology
work for us. Technological advance is of little use to
us if it is going to lead us to destroy the earth and
subjugate all its inhabitants (including ourselves).
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