‘Aloft (for Jean Honoré F.)’

Mixed Media (Wood, plaster, paint, polyurethane, organic materials, rose scent, drywall, light fixtures, fan, audio loop.)

8’W x 7’-6”H x 15’L

2012

An immersive installation in which the viewer is compelled to adopt a seated, reclining posture in order to fully view (through a framed opening) a scale-model stone masonry tunnel, which recedes upward at a 45 degree angle approximately 15’ into the distance. The shaft is dimly lit at regular intervals and interrupted at a midway point by an intersecting doorway, in which various objects are strewn within the floor matrix (tree branch, swing, female shoe). The objects appear as if ejected from the causeway as a result of some unknown ‘event’ -as if transported from Fragonard’s painting through some ‘black-hole’ of space/time into this ‘Tarkovskian’ construct. A security camera acting as the agent of the tunnel’s self-awareness highlights the intrusion. The piece is an indirect homage to Jean-Honore Fragonard’s iconic painting ‘The Swing’.  In ‘Aloft’, the viewer inhabits the ‘space’ occupied by the upward gazing male ‘suitor’ in Fragonard’s painting. As the piece is glimpsed from the viewer’s fixed vantage, a gentle breeze wafts through the tunnel carrying with it the faint scent of rose petals. At the same time a mechanical droning sound can be faintly heard coursing through the space.