Proposal for a Vacancy: Proposal for a Film (2010) 3:13 min.
Proposal for a Vacancy/ Proposal for a Film is a compilation of short, digital videos that aim to project a sense of touch on vision, and model perception. In the videos, the artist performs a series of gestures with a painted 8mm strip of celluloid. Through these gestures of scraping and filtering, examining and searching, vision is performed and represented. These videos are an investigation into the various ways one may construct an image, hold time and grasp vision. They were also inspired by the story of a glint of light reflected off a can as it bobbed at sea that Jacques Lacan, the French psychoanalyst, allegedly felt spied on, and observed, him. This type of panoptical paranoia is hinted at as the recorded image surveys and examines itself through its own sprocket holes and aligns its movement with its shadow. As one watches the piece of painted film wind through various vignettes, the artist calls to mind egress, presence, editing and self-examination. Layers of space are depicted and collaged; psychological space of observation and surveillance, embodied phenomenological space and cool, mathematically calculable space are represented in pattern and grid. These videos propose to act as “light objects”, occupying space by referring to it, rather than displacing it. This filmic model asks,“How does one see or situate oneself in space?”