Black and White Light
After being awarded this exhibition a year ago the journey to produce this work has been meaningful and challenging. The contractual requirement to maintain the identical media the award was given for presented a unique type of restriction I was unaccustomed to, humorously paralleling Life With COVID and its myriad of restrictions and risks.
Through the lens of this new normal is how I approached the work. Everything seemed to refer to this reality and I was literally seeing things everywhere. OMG that tree looks like my nephew�s COVID beard! OMG I�m in a TENT camping! I�m outside! My cat died! But she killed a bird first! Why can�t I blow things up like I used to be able to? Why are those trees talking so loud? Who knew that holographic glitter was a portal to infinity? Those dirty dishes look like an alien life form! And oh! how I came to hate Zoom.
This work consists of anthropomorphic landscapes, interiorscapes, still lifes, and dynamic experiments. Video clips link with many of these images via ARTIVIVE app, adding an augmented reality layer.
The use of backlighting was in part to echo our living life so very much in front of screens. The lightboxes are tuned to 6500K, a more blue daylight and the prints were printed warmly to result in a split tone effect mixing the highlights to be cooler and the darker tones to be warmer. Reflecting an emotional push-pull undercurrent. Election anyone?
May this work bring pleasure, solemnity, or somehow resonate, perhaps even with humor, with you and yours and what you have witnessed and endured.
We are not alone.