DEEP CIRCULARITY
Situated deep within the cavernous interior of a dormant factory, Deep Circularity is an immersive installation that manifests as a pulsing, reflected, experiential world through the combination of the haptic with the ephemeral, and the specific with the evocative.
In a dimly lit and seemingly empty space with remnants of past utilitarian purpose something in the shadowy distance emanates a pulsing life force. Moving closer, an almost imperceptible flow of shifting shadows and light glide across an encompassing membrane. At the centre, a cylindrical monolith glows and appears to float on a sea of air. It is a long approach through the darkness towards an alluring situation until one lands in this world of mirrored reflections, feeling suspended and out of balance as a slowly shifting cloudscape surrounds and the reflected ground-now-sky under your feet seems to bend and flex.
Compelled to circumscribe the perimeter of the circular, light-filled central form in the way that contemplative practices find resonance in circular pathways, one recognizes it as a large vessel containing water. Shimmering and refracting in response to footsteps, the light within spins, and fractures as the water ripples and oscillates the more quickly one moves, the more heavily one steps. One may hold onto the cool, translucent wall for steadiness, perhaps sliding down to sit on the reflective ground and take in the gentle vibration, the shifting scape of which one is now a part. To steady one’s bearings, perhaps the eyes close and the feeling of being gently cradled settles in as … “the present and the absent, the near and the distant, the sensed and the imagined fuse together” (Finnish architect, Juhani Pallasmaa)
Employing phenomenological and perceptional forms of engagement vacillating between the haptic and the ephemeral, harmony and tension, Deep Circularity challenges the participant’s expectations while engaging them in an oblique narrative in which they are an active player. An experiential installation, the project draws upon a multi-sensory array of methods and techniques, including metaphorical and symbolic evocations as well as digital and analogue approaches to conjure responses to a range of meanings, sensations and ideas engendered by the ontological triad of chaos/sublimity/duration. Deep Circularity engages us in a dynamic rhythm, an unsettling relationship with the world, throwing us out of balance while also inviting reflection on why and how things happen within and across the arc of time.
16’ x 16’ x 12” mirrored platform resting on inner tubes; 700 gallon water tank; incandescent clamp-light; single channel video shot on iPhone, split as a rear-projection onto three 16’ w x 10’ screens.
