COMPOUNDAGANZA
June 28-August 3rd, 2014
CLOSING RECEPTION & ARTIST TALK
with Mary Burger, Andreina Davila, Zach Clark, and Takehito Etani
SUNDAY, AUGUST 3rd, 4-7PM (Talk starts at 5pm sharp)
Join us on the last day of Compoundaganza for some delicious treats, great art, and listen to Mary, Andreina, Zach Clark, Takehito Etani, Toni Gentilli, and Maritza Ruiz-Kim talk about their methods and work. The panel is from 5-5:45pm
Featuring the work of: Alexis Babayan, Andreina Davila, Amira Hankin, Crystal Morey, David Fullarton, David Six, Jeanne Lorenz, Kat Kazlauskas, Katherine Mac El hiney, Kyle Lypka, Maritza Ruiz-Kim, Mary Burger, Mary Mortimer, Robert Lindsay, Takehito Etani, Toni Gentilli, Yuki Maruyama, Zach Clark
*Artist panel will stream LIVE on our website
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Transparent Footprints of Invisible Giants
Urban intervention/video performance and installationTransparent Footprints of Invisible Giants is an urban intervention with a pair of stilts that records virtual video “footprints” during walking performances. Onboard video cameras on the stilts record and map the performer’s footprints on various street surfaces such as concrete, asphalt, and lawns, thus leaving the digital stratum of 21st century to the future. Another video camera on top of the head records the sky and an audio recorder records the urban soundscape.
Installation
The audio/video recordings will be used for installations in which the footprint footage is projected on the floor and the sky footage on the ceiling above. Simultaneous movement of the facing projected images creates the illusion of a transparent body moving through the space between sky and earth. Lives on the streets such as people and traffic are conspicuously absent from the video and only implied by the audio. This distance creates a sense of both presence and absence- as symbolized by the footprints.The Story
I once heard a legend that a long long time ago, invisible giants roamed around the earth. According to the legend, they were so tall that their heads soared above the clouds. Despite their colossal stature, they were very gentle beings, and they walked slowly and carefully to avoid stepping on helpless humans and other creatures and trees. Because they walked so carefully, eventually the eyes on their faces atrophied, and they sprouted new eyes on the bottoms of their feet so that they could carefully observe the earth they roamed. They also formed an extra eye on the tops of their heads in order to permanently gaze upward to the heavens.The ancient humans revered them as sacred beings who connect heaven and earth. It is believed that one can gaze the past, present, and future through the giants’ transparent footprints. These fossilized footprints are yet to be found. Perhaps, these benevolent beings are still silently, invisibly walking among us. What kind of footprints will we humans leave behind on the future strata? What will be left behind long after our civilization is gone? What will remain unaffected by time?
In my search for the answers to those questions, I find myself thinking about the invisible giants and their peaceful way of observing the earth that they walked upon. I utilized our current digital video technology to create a wearable prototype to simulate the giants’ perspective and to leave my own transparent footprints on the distant future.My quest for the invisible giants has just begun.