Second degree: an
account of an encounter
As you walked in to
the space the light fell on a group of blackened masks or faces, slightly
larger than life, installed on the wall to one’s right between the timber
posts. It looked as if the masks may have been covered with bitumen but
there was no aroma of pitch. Their
presence hovered within a
perceptual space that was neither scary nor cute.
The next alcove was darkened.
Many small framed objects became
illuminated at intervals. A bluish light emanated from photographic images of
night scenes in bushland of some sort. As one peered into the images one could
begin to perceive amorphous forms; slightly human, slightly animal like (the
artists crouched, shrouded in blankets wearing animal ears). To the far left end
of the wall, one of these objects depicted a bluish veil. Opposite on the brick
wall was a miniature video of a moving image of mist rising from a landscape.
As one continued to move straight ahead in darkness, the path was closed off with
a curved screen. Mounted above and
behind it, a data projector
sent a beam of blue light through the screen and onto the wall: the
final motif in the space. Two
small button s on a little game console could be manipulated by the viewer to
expand or reduce this blue beam of light into a thin line or a huge blue blob
that occupied the entire wall. There
were sounds.
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