SUSPENDED

Suspended is a photo and video installation of constructed fiction. Using would- be circus performers as subjects, Suspended explores the boundaries between illusion and reality capturing private scenes of performance in which desire for the impossible prevails. Caught in desperate and absurd situations, solitary acts of magic and illusion do not entertain, but instead isolate the characters in a private and unending cycle of performing. Images of suspension conflate opposites: freedom and confinement, determination and futility, bravery and crippling inaction. With references to metaphorical and allegorical principles, Suspended recalls the myth of Icarus who flew too close to the sun and Sisyphus who unwittingly is condemned to an endless purgatory. Like Lucky and Vladamir these individuals are confined to an absurdist reality with no beginning and no end, just endless and determined repetition with darkly amusing results.

VIDEO BASED WORK

 The large-format photo-based works depict circus-like acts in which performers become suspended both literally and figuratively in impossible situations.They include a staged levitation scene; a down-and-out clown mesmerized by his own reflection, a life-size pair of dysfunctional prosthetic wings held together by a vertical filmstrip showing repeated clips of Houdini hanging upside down, first confined then flying free; an earthbound flying horse and rider; and stills of the video performances.

SUSPENDED INSTALLATION 2009