Epiphanies and Explanations

A late night epiphany, and followed later by more conclusive research has led to my conclusion about the final presentation of my works.

I will be showing prints of my favorite “Security” photographs, that I’ve taken during my time here in Trinidad. I’m hoping to measure the new iron doors to the building at the end of the driveway in Alice Yard, and see if it’s construction, purposely designed as a display area, will work with my prints. This to me, is the most suitable area to show my photographs, as the structure itself is both a door and a gate, and is meant to keep people out of an area as much as it is meant to lead people into an area,

and perhaps display artwork the entire time! I’m going to experiment with having it open, though this picture here shows it shut.

If Jeanika still intends to use the loft space of that building to show case some of her work, and if Andrea would be willing to use the downstairs area of that building, than posting my photographs on the outside would lend a continuity to my display when I use the white box for projection, as the gate/door/display is in the same line of sight, but can also be used to lead viewers to the other two artists’ works.

Now, I’ve been concerned lately that the only portion of my work that this interesting to anyone is this experimental performance/project. I’m not particularly pleased that the only thing people know about my efforts this semester is that I plan to get naked. It’s a little disheartening to realize that the interests and efforts that I’ve put in before hesitantly announcing this other idea are completely ignored, but it’s unfortunately not something I can control. For this reason, I like the idea of prominently displaying my photographs on that gate/door/display area, as it would be an arresting sight, and the first thing that people would see as they walk into the space.

But I can’t devote all my time and energies to those photographs, since I’ve also committed to this performance/project. I am going to project the stop motion videos simultaneously, on different walls

in the white box. Initially, I was concerned that overlapping beams of lights from the projects would skew the image on the walls. While this would be an interesting effect to play with, I’m more invested in projecting three videos at the same time. I like the idea of playing with the concept that a photograph is a specific, single record of a moment in time. I would be bending and playing with this in a way, by projecting three moving images of the same moment.

If I can utilize an artist here, and incorporate external flash, I’d like to figure out the timing in each video so that each flash is projected at the same time, whiting out the space, and then editing the videos so that the three perspectives shift after the white out. This will involve some complications for me, seeing as how my knowledge of iMovie or another other movie making software is rather limited. I do however, think that I can make this work, and am I’m really looking forward to trying!

Rummaging through fabric and prying the lids of some paint buckets has also been fruitful, in light of this performance/project.

I found red, blue and white body paint in the Program House, which, miraculously, are the colors (well, red and blue) that I wanted to work with in the first conceptualization of this performance/project. There is a little more red paint than blue, so I’m thinking of mixing the white and blue for a lighter hue of blue. This works out well, since a big portion of what interests me in regards to the paint is the mixing that will happen on my body and on the fabric.

The fabrics that I found pose some interesting possibilities. I’ve found a lot of an extremely sheer, slightly shiny fabric, cotton sheets, and a mesh, which is similar to the fabric that basketball/athletic shorts are made of. Tomorrow I plan to test the paint on a small sample of each fabric, and to see how layering might effect the look I’m trying to achieve.

This performance/project will be set up in the space that is shown in the following photograph. I will be suspending the sheer cloth to the upper trellis, above the driveway, as a sort of “ceiling,” and will be creating “walls” with the remaining fabrics.

I’m looking to create a visually stunning tunnel of white, which will taper off in size as it approaches the door/gate/display area that I spoke of previously.

I will be sure to document these steps visually tomorrow, as I attempt to realize what so far, has only existed in my mind! Look for those updates Monday.