Media Blackout II
Media Blackout II, (2017) live performance, variable duration
Media Blackout II (2017) is a further investigation into the degree to which I could remove the mechanically reproduced image and still construct a cinematic experience in which a critique of representation, to some degree, constitutes a political aesthetic. It is an expanded cinema piece that dispenses with all filmmaking apparatuses. It is performed in a dark space, in which a lit lightbulb on a long cable hangs from the ceiling several meters away from a mirror. I swing the lightbulb toward the mirror at measured intervals until it breaks, smashed against the mirror, ending in a complete blackout.
The quality, direction, and radius of illumination change as the lightbulb swings back and forth. When it swings toward the mirror, the audience can momentarily see their reflection and/or that of others in the space, but only until the bulb comes close to the mirror, obliterating the reflection. As the lightbulb swings back, the approaching light throws shadows of the audience onto the walls and ceiling behind them. Shadows pulse around the room, growing in scale and then shrinking as the lightbulb swings back and forth. The room looks like it is breathing.
