installations
disappearance of now
I like to think of the present as an estuary: where the streams of the past mix and flow into the sea of the future. The waters constantly swirl ebbing and flowing. Fish spawn, hatch, and escape to the open waters. Their protective covers, be it mangroves or eel grass cycle through its own life’s rhythm. The present is not a solid state. It’s not terra firma where one plants a flag and establishes roots. It’s never home.
Everything exists in a state of transformation and multiplicity. I do not like this. I do not like that our “true” present is immediately and forever devoured by the past, “in truth, all sensation is a memory” said Bergson - no thank you. I will freeze the water of my estuary and keep the ice shards safe with me. I'll hold onto my past presents. With this, I’m not only keeping evidence of my own existence but am preserving my reality: the people, places, and feelings of my life.
It is important in my work to recognize the fabricated nature of such a place. Even the quilted qualities of the screens reference the pixels that make up the image in which it is from. Grids, an unnatural man-made organizing tool, serve as a motif in the installation. It is seen, for instance, in the fabrics’ pattern, and the network of clotheslines in which all fabric is hung. The installation’s bed sheets and screens are hung on a clothesline with wooden pins implying the action of hanging laundry —putting it up and taking it down. Thus leaving an impression of temperance. The screens are semi-transparent and billow after the slightest movement, so there is not one fixed way of seeing the screens. Additionally, the screens are hung closely in front of ones with the same image, so when the viewer and the screens move — so does the image, it feels like the image, my preserved present, is slipping.
Surrounding the halls, which can be peeked at through gaps in the fabric, is the temporal — the reality that cannot be escaped or denied. Labored over ice sculptures melt, a tree grows, a dissipating fragrance, a family heirloom with a lost story, hot tea growing cold, and other tokens illustrating the harsh yet beautiful unrelenting passage of time.
project info
Documentation of two versions of the same installation.
Images and more information on the drawings on the sheer screens can be found here