Apparently/Apparently Not
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Description
apparently/apparently not is an installation composed of over three hundred individually cast and painted multiples produced over a six-month period. This installation investigates the futility of movement and the impossibility of flight by a herd of blind, mute, and oblivious creatures as they traverse their confined environment in a pathetic attempt to escape.
This installation grew out of a short story that I had written several years ago. In the text the protagonist is constantly second guessing himself, reflecting on each decision or action that he has made throughout his life, often concluding that each step he has taken forward, in retrospect was one of digression or descent. A life of apparent progress without progression.
In adapting this story into the present installation I was interested in how I could work metaphorically with the physicality of the creatures through their mutated anatomy, absurdly imprisoned within bodies that are unable to receive sustenance or perceive their environment, able only to express themselves through their slow, senseless journey.
Through the multiplication and variety of these creatures I wish suggest an open ended allegory to human struggles as we try to come to terms with both our personal and collective actions and decisions surrounding what we assume is progress, and the ceaseless repetitions we encounter as we blindly make our way through life, taking one step forward and at the same time one step backward as we move.
This installation is designed to be adaptable, just as the creatures themselves, to a variety of spaces. Each new installation finds the creatures recontextualized in different manners dictated by the spaces that they temporarily inhabit.
apparently/apparently not is an installation composed of over three hundred individually cast and painted multiples produced over a six-month period. This installation investigates the futility of movement and the impossibility of flight by a herd of blind, mute, and oblivious creatures as they traverse their confined environment in a pathetic attempt to escape.
This installation grew out of a short story that I had written several years ago. In the text the protagonist is constantly second guessing himself, reflecting on each decision or action that he has made throughout his life, often concluding that each step he has taken forward, in retrospect was one of digression or descent. A life of apparent progress without progression.
In adapting this story into the present installation I was interested in how I could work metaphorically with the physicality of the creatures through their mutated anatomy, absurdly imprisoned within bodies that are unable to receive sustenance or perceive their environment, able only to express themselves through their slow, senseless journey.
Through the multiplication and variety of these creatures I wish suggest an open ended allegory to human struggles as we try to come to terms with both our personal and collective actions and decisions surrounding what we assume is progress, and the ceaseless repetitions we encounter as we blindly make our way through life, taking one step forward and at the same time one step backward as we move.
This installation is designed to be adaptable, just as the creatures themselves, to a variety of spaces. Each new installation finds the creatures recontextualized in different manners dictated by the spaces that they temporarily inhabit.