building o castelo

THINKING AND TESTING

As previously used in the Spectrum Exhibition, it was evident that part of the work was its anamorphic surveillance quality. It also became important to connect the several forms and shapes which the practise had been shaped by and allow for them to coexist in a meaningful manner.

At first, there was a temptation to replicate Plato’s Cave allegory visually. To present a set of shadows to the audience and blind them with a narrow small space where there would be both the object/source and its reflection/projection. However, this seemed too literal and constricting.

Unlike previous shows, in this exhibition, the surveillance system (CCTVs and monitors) would be in broad daylight. This meant that there had to be an alternate form of perverting the reality of the transmission. To look for yourself in the darkness provides with one kind of veil hence, there had to be a replacement for that distancing of the hyper-real.

Studying the options, the reflective surface seemed quite engaging. The malleability of the material meant that it was possible to create a setup that was both effective in its purpose and visually appealing.

The study of layout and positioning of these fluid textures amongst solid grid work began. It was crucial to have a distorted perspective yet that the apparatus did not look or appear directly, remaining both visible and invisible at once.

How to place the audience in this drift between the abstract and concrete, being and non-being, time past and future, analogue and technological?

FINAL DECISIONS

The final setup joined two prominent aspects of the practice: a technological futuristic approach and the fascination with forms of display that could be paralleled to 50’s sci-fi.

It is a choice to make old and visible all of the intricacies of the installation, rather than hiding them, as they are familiar to some, yet completely foreign to the new wireless generation.

A complementary play on surveillance, as the small devices we cary around hold more monitoring power than a room full of CCTV.

O CASTELO WALKTHROUGH

This exhibition, made by three interconnected “sub-series” of work, references to Franz Kafka’s The Castle. Complex in nature and hard to reach in its multitudes of visual interference.

SURROGATES

Albeit the inexistent viewing order of the exhibition, one would most likely approach Surrogates first.

These series of unique silver jelly darkroom prints allude to Dylan Mulvin’s definition of Surrogacy, all whilst maintaining a liquid formality due to its ever shifting focal point. All three series show different forms of losing the concrete and gaining abstraction in one form or another, be it a different focus points, exposures or both.

This speaks to the rest of the work in a multitude of ways, prompting the audience to always look for the gap between what is and isn’t.

LA MÉTAMORPHOSE

La Métamorphose, consists of the surveillance tower, in its monolithic physical magnitude and the eyed branches, reaching out to the audience.

In this case, we have a strange duality where the viewer both is and isn’t. They are the piece that makes the artwork come alive yet, hindered by their constant necessity to yield a recognisable reality from their Narcissus-like reflections, they become lost in their visceral universe, where the installation serves only to replicate what they so intimately seek to reproduce.

LIQUID MOD

This series of calculated long exposures makes its way into the realm of the non-being by exploring the petrification of a slice of time. It could be considered a frozen slice of what one might experience during the aqueous exploration of the previous experience.

It aims, in parallel with the ensemble to show, by sensory contrast, a version of the metaphysical non-being, pointing to a Post Human experience. Colours and shapes that transgress the habitual visual perception.

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LA MÉTAMORPHOSE