REAR WINDOW
single-channel video installation
68"(h) x 19"(w) x 14"(d)
(2018)
Often, much of urban city life is spent living among other people in close quarters and high concentrations, where space is at premium and privacy is a luxury. Tiny apartments are the norm for many in this situation. Windows provide light and air, but don’t necessarily promise a view beyond a neighbor’s apartment across an alley or airshaft. This static landscape can grow repetitive, with long stretches of inaction, but occasionally it’s unexpectedly broken up with an isolated occurrence that offers no narrative except what the observer projects on it. In those moments, the shared space is transformed into a voyeuristic stage where a glimpse of activity can be caught by looking through the slats of closed shutters, surreptitiously looking out while not letting others look in.
With REAR WINDOW, I try to capture this unique, but prominent, element of my years spent living in a small tenement apartment in New York City’s East Village and share the experience with an audience. I invite them to make their world larger by peeking through the shutters and experiencing that sense of unexpected discovery. However, since the view is obscured by the shutters, they must invest some effort in order to find something rewarding (much like living in that sort of apartment). This piece uses long-looping 4K video to be temporally dynamic, changing over time, so what the viewer sees will be different depending on when and how long they decide to look.
Exhibitions:
Riverfront Gallery (2018)