Undo Cloud (Our words are stone)
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A project about presence, memory and being in space. The image orientation along with microphones prompted most visitors to speak, or shout, unsure of what they might hear back. Which was nothing, at first. But as they moved throughout the rest of the exhibition, they would be surprised to hear their voice repeated back via a large speaker hidden above them a full 60 seconds later. We confess to the cloud and can never take it back. Words and self-perception become fixed objects we no longer control.
One of two pieces exhibited in a group show I co-curated with artist Stephanie Parnes titled PhonoMorphoIdiot. From the exhibition materials:
phono: sound, voice
morpho: form, shape
idiot: a stupid person
PhonoMorphoIdiot is a group exhibition that considers the uncertainties and absurdities of our verbal, written, and text-based communication. We exist between a shared understanding and the sensory and cultural edges of language which are shaped by everything from bodily states, fantasies and in-group signaling, to predictive text, targeted advertising and character limits. Whether through image-making, objects or sound, the artists in this show engage with language’s flexibility – often to its breaking point. Channels become convoluted, noise increases, the signal is misdirected or lost. By staying with these failures and frolicking in their wreckage, we may stumble upon alternative modes of signifying and connecting to one another.
With Andrew C. Lorish, Alyson Provax, Madeline Maszk, and Stephanie Parnes. Presented by Eugene Contemporary Art at ANTI-AESTHETIC, Eugene, OR.