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Blow X Blow

By Holly Willis
November 28, 2009
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Projection is both the most visible and invisible aspect of cinema. We "see" it, of course, but only really notice it when the bulb blows, the lens drifts out of focus or things go unhappily awry back in the booth. For designer and architectural theorist Joe Day, however, projection can be a starting point. For his installation titled Blow X Blow, now on view at the SCI-Arc Gallery, projection "scripts" the space for images Rather than languishing passively as the backdrop for a projected story, Blow X Blow embodies a bouncing beam of light within a space, and adds screens wherever there are resulting surfaces. The installation consists of white angled planes, with videos projected on many of the expanses. Among the videos is Josh Melnick's The 8 Train, a collection of black-and-white portraits of subway riders whose faces remain still while the backgrounds move gently behind them. The space perfectly accommodates the video, showing different faces on disparate screens and creating a sense of combined anonymity and intimacy. Day's intriguing project joins a larger interrogation of often invisible infrastructures that script our behavior, in this case cleverly reimagining cinema, both by making visible one of its central components and by multiplying the screens we can view in conjunction with videos that profit from this proliferation of vantage points. For an added treat, visit the gallery this Monday night, November 30, at 7:30 p.m., when artist and filmmaker Sarah Morris will chat with graphic designer Richard Massey as part of the Friends of Friends Discussion series aligned with the exhibition. (Image: Lida Mahabadi)
the details:
Blow X Blow
SCI-Arc Gallery
Through December 13, 2009

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