Interactive installations, 2008-1981 (photos/videos)
"Tilted Picnic", an installation with interactive sound components, Dayton Institute of the Arts, Ohio, 2008
“Tilted Picnic” is an installation/performance work encompassing numerous found objects, methodologies, and concepts that abstractly reference various interactions between evolution, technology, nature, and music. The title of the work implies the out-of-balance technology that we have become dependent on to survive. The work functions as a surreal “survival kit” for nature and the human race. Structures of expanding/contracting objects, a collapsible upside-down picnic table, a functional Tuna Fish Cello, and other object/sculptures attempt to create an environment of juxtaposition, adaptability, and sustainability as we face a world forever changed by our presence.
A fire escape ladder surrounds a Marlin facing extinction while a tower of warning bells toll. An attempt is made to communicate through the ages back to the ancient tide-pools of pre-history where life itself began, as the artist-seeker sits in a chair connected to vital earth spirits and attempts to summon the “essence” through playing a cello fashioned from the body of a Tuna. The towers and structures are “spirit-catchers”, or “spirit antennae” seeking to channel deep undersea forces still vibrating from far away sources. Other “tools’ and mystical devices, like modern divining rods, seek to channel creative primordial forces and energies, while the player-seeker sends outward a droning and emotional plea for survival and redemption.
