The SKRFF_ologists were invited to create a site-specific installation in the historic Neustift Abbey as part of the 2024 Water Light Festival in Brixen, Italy. Based on the short film SKRFF, the work was projected in the stairwell adjacent to the main library and the Chinese cabinet room, where frescos dating from around 1775/80 were recently discovered underneath seven layers of plaster.
Hail Mary is a projection mapping project that was part of the Night Light Denver program. It showed on the Daniels and Fisher clocktower in downtown Denver nightly for the month of September, 2021 as part of the Supernova Festival programing.
Saint Mary’s Glacier near Idaho Springs, CO, is the glacier that never was. Once a ski area, now a popular day hike, this permanent snowfield contains no ice and does not move as real glaciers do. Or does it? Using sand collected from the runoff of Saint Mary’s and snow from my backyard, I create transient sculptures, replicating the glacial process in a human timeframe by layering sand and snow, applying pressure with my hands to compact the layers into ice and applying human-initiated freeze-thaw cycles. Placed in the sunlight, these miniature glaciers react to the influence of gravity and solar radiation. Using timelapse photography, I am able to translate geological time into human time. The footage speaks to the collapse of ecological systems, but also offers an imagined reversal to regenerate what has been lost, a “Hail, Mary”, if you will, against a perpetually shrinking snowpack. Projected on the Daniels & Fisher Clocktower, these insignificant grains of sand from an aspirational glacier become a prominent chorus of natural forces that transcend the human-scaled scope of the urban environment.
Snow Beach
single-channel video installation
2019, 5min
2019, 5min
Installation at Uktus, Yekaterinburg, Russia for UnDark Festival 21-22 December, 2019.
Artist’s Statement: I have been working with sand for 15 years, creating animation and sculptures that accentuate its unique qualities and metaphorical connections with humanity. "Snow Beach" explores the connection between sand and snow, as a touristic draw and economic resource. Using sand collected from beach re-nourishment projects along the eastern seaboard of the USA, I recreate the movement of the ocean waves, projecting them on the surface of man-made snow at the Уктус ski area in land-locked Yekaterinburg, Russia, drawing a parallel between the efforts of different societies to maintain recreation environments that are dependent on the ecological cycles of natural replenishment threatened by climate change. The location and atmosphere of the installation invites relaxation and play in an environment that is constantly under human influence.
Eye of Djerba
Interactive mapped projection
2019
2019
Eye of Djerba installed at the St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Homet Souk, Tunisia
The microscopic image is transmuted to the center of the projection, allowing the audience to see what the viewer sees.
Visitors inspect sand from around the world with magnifying globes.
A microscope camera controlled by the viewer focuses on individual grains of sand from Djerba.
Each visitor is asked to choose one grain of sand from Djerba.
The chosen grain of sand is collected in a bottle for future animation by the artist.
A visitor looking for his grain of sand.
Sand collected over three nights.
Interacting with the piece is a social experience.
Eye of Djerba
Tunisian guides explain aspects of the work and escort visitors through the experience.
Eye of Djerba - detail.
Eye of Djerba - photo by DK
Eye of Djerba is an original site specific interactive installation with light, sand, and projection created for the International Media Arts Biennial SEE DJERBA on the island of Djerba in Tunisia. The work asks viewers to look closely and consider the metaphorical worth of a single grain of sand within a global context. Viewers control a microscope camera to examine grains of sand from Djerba, enlarging the tiny grains to a human scale as they are projected on the facade of the St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Houmet Souk. The festival ran nightly from 29 Aug - 1 Sept and approximately 600 people interacted with the work during that time.
