Being / Becoming

The room is dark but crowded with screens of golden light. Massive four-legged forms, pregnant with life, move ponderously across the screens, dwarfing you like babies are dwarfed by their mothers. The creatures are human but more than human; atavistic gods in the form of animals. Your shadow jostles those of other visitors on the screens, lost in a throng of real and virtual presences. The music is deep, rhythmic and fills the room.

"Being / Becoming" (working title) is a 3-channel video installation.The video images are projected on large screens with front projection cameras. The screens are set at varying angles in the room, channeling the viewers into the spaces between them, so the viewers, their shadows, and the images on the screen jostle for space in the room.

The images are of Vera Slonyonok two weeks before she gave birth, her body heavy with child. Her previous baby died in infancy. This work is dedicated to his spirit.