winter branches
dorkbot
location one
new york, ny
march, 2007
portable modular new-media installation, conceived as a moving painting. dynamic video mosaic of shadows from tree branches in central park projected onto a "brick wall." the "wall" itself is composed of stacked boxes; one side covered with collage (contact paper and inkjet printouts). oil paintings on canvas are affixed to the opposite side of each box. a green painting (egg tempera on panel), impervious to tree shadows, hangs on the "wall."
after autumn leaves have fallen - i don't want to paint outside. and those cars driving through autumn leaves? they look like ghosts to me now. in winter, indoors, hiding, you might see shadows moving on the wall, the wind shaking trees outside.
you might.
in my studio, no tree shadows are visible. what about a friend's space? quick visit - yes, trees right outside, get canvasses, spend the night preparing, start early in the morning. what a wall, too - bricks, scarred, gashed, aged. yes, i can film the shadows moving on the wall, project shadows onto my painted recreation of the wall, try to paint ignoring light and shadows, just the bricks that are there.
no. just paint bricks? better to take a picture, enlarge. film moving shadows? that tree is just outside, but the branches are too thin maybe, too far maybe, only the moving sunlight (which is beautiful, but doesn't speak of winter branches) is visible.
that video... that idea, that taking a picture would be better than painting... take the picture. take the picture outside, into central park. lots of wind, lots of sunlight, lots of trees, lots of shadows, branches, evergreens, others barren...
a brick wall, right? so make a big brick wall, project the shadows onto that...
if it's a wall, it might have a painting on it...
every wall has two sides. this piece hasn't been shown properly yet - there's another painting, and all of those boxes, you can't see behind them - there are meant to be two projectors, two sides of the wall, there's another painting to be hung on the other side of the wall...
