Demography of Virulence (02014) Photography
This sequence of images is a narrative created during the passage over a river. Which river is not important. The act of crossing a river is what I am addressing. Voyage. Transcendence. Interstitial moments. Liminality. Using a bridge can be a strong metaphor if we ponder on it. The interstice here is the river itself, conduit of past voyages, but here crossed over as if to say it no longer applies as a route to a destination, but an obstacle. Historically, the river became a platform for the development of destinations and, therefore, a platform for the virulence of humans within a geographic system. Much like a virus uses veins, humans used these water courses to propagate their intentions. Thus, this system becomes a great collection of data possibilities for demographic information. In this series, we see the detritus of the snowplough on the surface of the ice. This phenomenon captures data with which we can make certain inferences. Speed, accumulation of snow, quality of snow, quantity of sand or salt in the residue, each attests to environmental conditions in a specific moment, on a specific day, at a specific place. Furthermore, these data combined give us a sense of the frequency with which this road is travelled. Also, the very act of the snowplough hurling the snow into the air over the bridge is reminiscent of virulent activity; an explosion of data. These strata show us the face of movement in this era. This trail of detritus is like leaving points on a map using GPS. The visual quality of the lines and patterns is reminiscent of the ebb and flow of a body of water, a beach. This aesthetic, although manufactured, is still bound to the rules of nature in the distribution of the matter. Humans are not unlike the natural productions and systems that surround and confound us, we are one and the same. I am interested in observation and the influence of inference within contemporary art.