Materials: Steel, motors, mechanical parts, chain, motion sensors, copper screen, embroidery
thread.
Dimensions: 6 sculptures total; Three steel plates, 2.5' x 2.5 each. Three embroideries,
each 8" x 8". Approx. 800 sq. feet when installed together.
Installation
view: 'Steel Toed Boots', 1992, 183 Bathurst, Toronto, Canada.
Photos: Simone Jones
This installation emerged
from a body of digital work, which explored the merging of woman's bodies
(lifted from lesbian and heterosexual pornographic sources), with images of
tools and machinery. 'Negative Vibes' (1992), features the images of
three women's faces, which were scanned and reworked on the computer, then
blown-up and chemically transferred onto the surfaces of three 1/8" thick
steel plates.
The women's images were
ground into the steel (appearing as photographic negatives) and suspended
by steel chain. When a viewer approaches, a motion sensor detects their presence
and activates an eccentric motor mounted behind each steel plate, which vibrates
the plate (subtly or violently). The women, can 'respond' positively or negatively
to persons within a range of two-feet.
As a companion to the steel plates, three embroideries resembling vulva's,
which have been stitched onto copper screen (from memory), are mounted on
a facing wall. This installation was also shown at ArtSpace in Peterborough,
as part of 'Handmade/HandHeld' (1992), an exhibition of artist work
created from research.