~ Shifting Boundaries ~
Shifting Boundaries, 2018, site-specific installation, black paper cut outs, spot lighting, wood, dowels, string.
Luminous Bodies Residency, Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto Island, ON.
Shifting Boundaries is a site-specific installation using shadow puppets, bodily movement, light, and shadow. Emerging from a process of photomontage in the project Composite Hybrids, individual photographs and computer-generated imagery are assembled into complex hybrid forms. Taking a detailed digital outline of these forms, they are then translated into black flat paper cutouts using a laser machine. Part human and part Other, this work takes its inspiration from Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto and its rejection of rigid boundaries between human, animal, organism, and machine. Set up using multiple lights, the observer’s shadow is cast into the installation as they walk by. In this moment, bodily boundaries become skewed and undefined; sparking a curiosity and play with the shadows. Depending on the viewer’s location, their shadow can hide, reveal, or blend in with the other shadows. Simultaneously breaking apart the body and putting it back together; this project is an attempt to blur the defining lines of bodies as a way to expose a heterogeneous perspective towards bodies of all shapes, sizes, and identities.
Installation View(s)