Awaken
“Awaken” Video Installation (1985) exhibited ‘Visual Force, Collective Histories of Northern Irish Art’ Exhibition, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, September 2009.
Awaken” is a video installation comprising 4 video monitors and recorders. The monitors are embedded into a platform with the screens facing upwards. It was one in a series of video works that explored the development of 'the self' as a visual concept. The videos show a female body floating in water, covered first by lace material, and then, later in the sequence, flower petals. The soundtrack of a humming voice emphasises the introspective sense of the piece. The video sequence moves from the body being hidden to revealed, fragmented to unified in a continuous cycle. The body floats in a dream-like state between the realms of the conscious and unconscious. The work makes reference to artworks such as John Everett Millais' s 'Ophelia' (1851-1852) and questions concepts such as 'narcissism' and it's often negative association with femininity. At the time the work was made, multi-screen video installation was still a relatively new form of presentation and this work used complex editing sequences designed to connect imagery across two and then four screens both horizontally and diagonally.
Awaken” is a video installation comprising 4 video monitors and recorders. The monitors are embedded into a platform with the screens facing upwards. It was one in a series of video works that explored the development of 'the self' as a visual concept. The videos show a female body floating in water, covered first by lace material, and then, later in the sequence, flower petals. The soundtrack of a humming voice emphasises the introspective sense of the piece. The video sequence moves from the body being hidden to revealed, fragmented to unified in a continuous cycle. The body floats in a dream-like state between the realms of the conscious and unconscious. The work makes reference to artworks such as John Everett Millais' s 'Ophelia' (1851-1852) and questions concepts such as 'narcissism' and it's often negative association with femininity. At the time the work was made, multi-screen video installation was still a relatively new form of presentation and this work used complex editing sequences designed to connect imagery across two and then four screens both horizontally and diagonally.
