Module 3: Installation Art and Presentation
Task: Exploring the role of site specific art through public and private spaces
The surplus plaster-bandage casts of the headblock were fun to experiment with changing the university gardens. I wanted it to feel like the gardens and trees were alive and watching. While I carry this through to later exercises, I did not pursue this specific concept.
Task: Exploring shadow boxed and silhouettes in contemporary art
Task: Exploring cut-outs, silhouette procetions and display methods in contemporary art
Here the masks made earlier begin to combine with the progressing exercises. The masks serve as viewing windows into bespoke timber boxes.
The long black box requires the viewer to look face on into the eyes of the mask, witnessing a compliation video in the style of analogue-horror (displayed on a tablet). It is designed to project an air of anxiety as the video reminds the viewer of uncomfortable and dubious facts. It also draws on popular internet media, such as viral tiktok audio tracks. Another site-specific design choice is that the viewing window faces away from the central gallery area, meaning at first glance it is a mundane black box that makes noise should you get close enough. The audience must leave the main area to peak back through a gap on the other side of the wall, creating a sense of voyeurism.
The tall white box requires the viewer to look in through the the fleshy backside of the mask into its competely dark contents. Intially the only light comes from the eye holes, meaning the viewer is able to see them relfected in the mirror immediately opposite them. They may flip a switch to make to contents visible, showing their eyes within a one of the clown masks. Furthermore, the light will activate a light-reactive sound module, that will play an audio clip, suggesting that it is not a very good idea to be looking in.
Both of these pieces have very obvious, unpainted padlocks on the outside. This keeps the audioence from looking inside in a way not designed, but also implies the contents are secret, and not meant to be extracted or witnessed. Given the intimate nature of the pieces, they are not easily photographed, requiring the audience to intentionally engage with the works.
Task: Activating object and site, exploring performance, rituals and private action
In this exercise I further explored video as an element of presentation and installation, wanting to explore how it could transform a space and the objects within it. I found myself drawn to a song by Miracle Musical called The Mind Electric, which explores themes of mental illness, shame, medicalisation, religious trauma and identity. I wanted a simple but striking video where I recorded 3 sepearate “characters” singing the song, each with a different maintained expression and individual tracks within the song. To emphasise the dramatic and sinister vibe, I found a video that had a lot of flashing light effects, and recorded myself along with the track, then syncing them together.
The characters
Red: Judge, Doctor, Priest, Father
Blue: Jury, Nurse, Nun, Mother
Purple: Defendant, Patient, Penitent, Son?
The concept is “conversations with myself with others”, wherein the “purple” character converses with archetypes they have psychologically constructed. These constructions direct, demand and manipulate him much like their real world counterparts would, showing the way in which we internalise the messages we receive from figures of authority, public discourse, and our peers. (It may shock you to hear this is also developed from a queer perspective!)
Originally this was going to project of 3 separate masks, however it evolves in the self directed work as 1 overlapping, interchanging, transparent face.
