Installations in time & space, now & then

Begin at the End (1998) - 4 slide projectors/3 soundtracks

Since way back in 1998, installation work has been a big part of what i do.  Thinking about a space, and how the work can be part of that space at that particular time, has been a central preoccupation of mine since those early days.

It's not very often that i'm able to take over a space and work in this way, so each time is usually a very different approach and experience; but i'm fortunate right now to have quite a few recent, current and future opportunities to do this type of work.  The recent Horizon Life installation in the "Time (Im)material" show was a great experience, and was really the culmination of a lot of work, going back a number of years.  

Currently i'm also working on a site-specific video animation piece (with lots of help from Nate Davis and Trent Miller) for a local event, "Bookless", that will be happening in late January in the empty downtown Madison public library (currently closed down for a complete renovation).  This piece uses materials directly from the library, has been shot on-site there, and will be installed in multiple locations inside the library during the event.  So, it will be a completely site-specific installation for the event, and my goal is for it to have a symbiosis with the space, a library empty of its usual inhabitants, the books.  Below is a promo clip for the event, using material from my piece...





Coming up at the beginning of 2013, i'll be having a solo exhibition at the Watrous Gallery here in Madison, which i'm excited about.  Aside from being my first solo show in quite a while, this will be my first opportunity in a long time to take over a space and have multiple works that play off each other.  So, i'm planning to do two installations, and possibly some smaller work, that will hopefully tie together all my work of the past several years.  

One element of installation work that i've always been interested in is that of scale:  with my first back in 1998, i was interested in filling spaces as much as i could, with both projected imagery and sound (to me there was something very theatrical about doing installations, and also illusory, since once the machines were shut off the work would be completely gone).  Then, at grad school in London i started doing very small installations... even when i did a solo show in a one room gallery, i didn't fill the space; it was a collection of loosely-connected elements, all separated in space.  I was going for intimacy with the work, and was trying to turn it toward something more personal as well, so i felt that the installation design needed to reflect this.

In the past several years my installation ideas have grown larger and more complex, but i still want to retain this intimate aspect that i have been cultivating in the work.  I hope to retain a balance between this growth in scale and the more personal ideas i have and will continue to explore. 

Here's an album of photos following the installations i've done since 1998.