zero

"zero" is based on footage appropriated from a WWII pilot training film starring Ronald Reagan. The film was created by US Airforce to help pilots to identify friendly P-40 from the enemy Zero planes. This footage is edited in such a way, as to highlight the visual and complicate ideological nature of the oppositional states present in the source film.

...as if a forest

Variety of "forest" sounds are performed using only the mouth following directions provided by a fictional company. They are looped and mixed via custom-designed software. The method of delivery references human language. The sound references a site. Neither element however, creates a stable definition. The mouth produces something akin to a nature recording instead of words and the audience can never escape the fact that the "forest" reference is created right in front of them. It is wrapped in a comically corporate package, and points to their immediate location as much, if not more, then to their own mental construct of a "forest".

This work examines marketing and packaging of an experience in contemporary global culture. It attempts to highlight illusionistic nature of the processes involved in "experience delivery."

For full (17min) documentation of the performance please follow this external link

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36 Views

Katsushika Hokusai's series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" is very much a part of the global art canon. The fact that there are actually 46 prints in the series is often forgotten in our brand-conscious world.

"36 views" is a piece of custom software that picks a random work from a 6 by 6 matrix on the screen and swaps it out with one of the 10 "invisible" works. This process is looped. It represents an attempt to fit all 46 pieces into the 36 places allowed for them in the art world.

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Departure

"Departure" is an exploration of a curious intersection of airplane passengers' and movie audience members' experiences. Both promise a journey to a viewer/passenger: a journey of the mind that involves immobilization of the body. We fasten our seat-belts waiting for the departure from the everyday.

This work is based on pre-flight videos shown on an intercontinental commercial flight.

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Surface.Tension.

The digital landscapes in "Surface.Tension." series are attemps to explore conventions of representation. Specifically, they deal with the idea of "sublime" and its relation to the landscape, which quickly developed into a formalized way of composing a canvas and a formalized way of reading a composition. The overwhelming amount of data flowing through various digital networks (pointed to in this context by commercial advertisements) constitutes a new type of "sublime" experience. It is a dimension that is entirely human-made and it is pushing against a shell of any metaphor that we try encapsulate it in.

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Each of the images in the series is produced through archival inkjet printing process 73"X35" edition of 5 + 2 AP

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Top 10 Asian Brands

This performance piece is an ironic take on the common perceptions of "East" and "West". The artist chants top 10 asian brands (as listed by www.brandingasia.com.)

The very idea of simple opposition of cultural "East" and "West" (often framed as higher spirituality vs. material prosperity) is called into question. Chanting, interspersed with occasional "a la Tuva" throat singing, is used to evoke an idea of "Eastern" spirituality, while the content, quite materialistic and "Western" undermines the method of delivery (and points to current economic conditions.) This unstable narrative is a way of complicating the binary opposition, which all too often defines our worldview.

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(In)Security Camera

The (In)Security Camera is a robotic surveillance camera with advanced computer-vision software that can track, zoom, and follow subjects walking through its field of view. Deploying sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms in use today by the U.S. military and Homeland Security forces, it can assess threat levels in real time and respond accordingly.

However, the camera is, in fact, a little insecure. Easily startled by sudden movements, it is shy around strangers and tends to avoid direct eye contact. This reversal of the relationship between the surveillance system and its subjects gives the machine an element of human personality and fallibility that is by turns endearing, tragic, and slightly disturbing.

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