Fascination for the Outside, 2019

Installation view, exhibited at Reforming, a two person exhibition with Diana Copperwhite, curated by Simon Fennessy Corcoran, at 126 Gallery, Galway as part of Galway International Arts Festival.

Emergency foil blankets, red & blue lights, one way mirror film, projected video, gold pallet, beanbags, monoprint on mirror, voile fabric, aroma diffuser, camomile and frankincense oil, sound piece.

About the Work

Fascination for the Outside is an immersive and physically interactive installation. Vibrant colours and reflective and transparent materials distort the space and the bodies and images within it. By manipulating sensory perception, the installation encourages the viewer to examine the strange within the familiar, and to focus on bodily experience outside of a preconceived self image. There are many divisions within the space, which both restrict and respond to the body, but are all either physically or visually penetrable, questioning the ways we mark boundaries. The piece was produced in the hopes of creating an intuitive space which promotes self awareness and rebellious acceptance, with room for complexities and contradictions.

The video element of this installation is made up of downloaded, royalty free clips. Each clip contains commercial, idealised and oversimplified depictions of gender typical and able-bodied bodies, with no personal complexity. Each clip is introduced by the reductive title given to it online and may be viewed as humours or absurd. The video is projected onto a mirror surface which releases a distorted refraction into the space. In order to watch the video in its original state, the viewer must lie passively on a hard wooden pallet, which has been painted gold. Contrasting this, the viewer may lie on one of the large beanbags, a soft, responsive surface, and watch a distorted image of themselves in the overhanging mirror film. They can experience this in two contrasting colours, red and blue. As the viewer moves through the space, the mylar foil sways in response. There are also particular points where the viewer may realise that is material is not only reflective but transparent.