Reception

Reception focuses on the material divide of physical and digital experience. The photographs document a series of physical scenarios played out against a digital flatscreen backdrop. Materials are scattered, rubbed and poured across its surface and support. A head, hands, fish and fowl take a performative turn on its stage. Objects are placed and lit to carefully integrate with the pixelated information. Others are set on fire, blasted with a hose or hurled across the frame. The setups utilize both vertical and horizontal orientation and explore a range of effects from gravity. In the related video Deluge, physical water refracts across the surface of a fiery apocalypse going down onscreen. An obscured figure slams around the frame through the blur and chaos of the dueling representation of elements.

Shot digitally, the work captures that slice of physical experience caught in the interstitial space between a screen projecting and the lens absorbing ever more information. They recall us to the body ever in attendance there and rally for a more active encounter. The title Reception refers to the receiving of broadcast signals. But reception is also “the action or process of receiving something sent, given, or inflicted; the formal or ceremonious welcoming of a guest; a celebration.” With a nod to concepts in Expressionist painting and Feminist performance, they catch a trace of a viewer on the surface of the image being seen.