Borderlands
2016,
Material/Technique: wooden light box, fluorescent lights, obsidian, vacuum formed plastic, Plexiglas, metal frame, video, sound, ( Voice by Leslie Kraus)
Locations: Big Four Ice Caves in Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Newberry National Volcanic Monument-Bend Oregon, Snoqualmie Pass train Tunnel- John-Wayne Trail,
Photo Credit: Mark Woods
Description:
Upon entering the space the viewers find themselves faced with two transparent plastic coats hung up side by side. One slightly different than the other in length. A light table in the center of the space, translucent objects within it. Barely visible they appear as a skin, a halo and a shadow of a form. Observing them close up they appear different, through Polarized filters they become dark, mysterious and vibrant.
The scenes in “Borderlands” shift between four distinct locations. The body moves through these scenarios. The action symbolizes a philosophical quest to gain a higher conscience. Alchemy was a discipline that aimed to purify and mature certain objects and to transform base metals into gold, but it was also spiritual transformation to achieve perfection of the human body and soul. The metaphorical transformation of two minerals opal and obsidian is a referring to the alchemical transformation that aimed to separate and then unify opposites of the body and mind to create a higher unification- the third gender. This project investigates into issues of bipolar personality and gender fluidity. Through touch solid black obsidian, representing the male potential transforms into a transparent and weightless other of itself, suggesting the female quality. In a further evolution the clear shifts into an iridescent third that has the ability to encapsulate both the black, transparent and white as well as every stage of color in between. This third being I view as a hermaphroditic unification in which everything is united.