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| Archive |
| Out
of Character
| 1993 - 1995 |
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| Multi-media
installation Video projection 8:00 loop Mirrors, 3 armatures, 3 stands |
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<< | Installation view: The New Gallery, Calgary 1/7 | >> |
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Out of Character is a
viewer interactive installation composed of armatures evoking a gun, mirrors,
and a video projection. The armatures (in sizes small, medium and large)
are placed in front of the mirror and may be tried on. They are composed
of metal frames that follow the form of the arm. The viewer's arm slips
through a red satin sleeve and grasps the handle found at the end. Mounted
on the forearm of the armature is a gun scope. Viewers looking through
the scope are confronted with their own reflection in the mirror layered
on the backdrop of the video projection. Seeing oneself through the sightline
creates the dual position of voyeur and target, calling into question the
act of ‘looking’. The video projection is constructed from
images of a group of women also exploring and posing with guns in front
of a mirror. It is made from black and white photographs taken at my studio,
where I had invited women to come to be photographed with guns. The photographs
are assembled as a flipbook and then filmed as my hands flip the pages
of the book. In November of 1992, I went on a hunting trip on which I was the only woman in the group. I did not do much hunting in the sense of stalking the prey, instead I was completely preoccupied by the gun I carried. I was handling and using a gun for the first time. I studied how the men positioned themselves with the gun, how they hung it loosely over their arm, pointing it downward, how they gripped it tightly across their chests and how they pulled it towards their bodies to aim. It was a language of gestures I mimicked. The gun has a strange and compelling power. I remember the stress it placed on my body and on my conscience. I had to adjust to its weight, the positioning of it, always aware of the direction in which it aimed and the implications of aiming in a direction. Afterwards, when I saw a photograph taken on the hunt, I was struck to see that the image of myself was powerful -yet foreign. It is this “moment “ that the work attempts to reconstruct: the exploration of the self when the desire for empowerment is aroused. |
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Credits: |