Close

Biologia 2003-2004

The black wooden frame is filled with cryptogamic crust rescued from a future construction site in the area of the Boat Rock woodland in South Fulton County. The cryptogamic crust, being so tiny, and normally underfoot, is in daily reality something “hidden in plain view.” Two interactive devices – magnifying glasses – are placed on each side of the moss table to suggest and encourage close-up inspection of the flora. The normal relationship of the viewer to the moss is changed. No longer under foot, the moss and lichen are framed at counter level and underneath the viewer’s nose. The magnifying glasses not only encourage interaction with the cryptogams, they also emphasize the scale difference between human and flora – microscopic versus macroscopic.

The backroom full of sculpture is set up to create a dialog between viewer and objects. At fifteen inches wide, the portal which is the only access to the sculpture, is too narrow to make a comfortable doorway. The partial view available from the slot hints at some sort of activity or a quality of space much different from the quietly lit room with the frame of moss. What person in a darkened room won’t go to a door, partially open and brightly lit from behind? When the viewer advances through the narrow slot, she/he is confronted with glaring white forms hanging overhead, to each side, and coming from below. The viewer becomes suspended in the middle of the installation, floating in relation to the sculptures. The viewer is now under the artwork’s “nose.” The intent is to create a role reversal – microbiotic become macrobiotic, and the human viewer becomes diminutive.

About the author Pandra Williams

Bio

All posts by Pandra Williams →