This piece is about two trees, or one – a tree tree. It is a dual channel video installation featuring short silent video loops of different lengths projected as a single overlapping unit, constantly combining in new ways, recreating the work in each moment.
This piece is also about finding oneself. It’s about finding oneself by losing oneself.
It seems to me that the truest expression of our selves comes when we are the least self-aware or self-conscious, but instead are completely immersed in what we are doing (or not doing). I went looking for unselfconsciousness in two types of activity or state – one exalted, the other mundane.
In the former, we concentrate so devotedly on an object, process, or individual, that the rest of the world falls away. In opposition to the moments where we step firmly outside the daily round of existence are those moments where we step as firmly into it, where we find selflessness through immersion into tasks so known that they do not require being thought about. We are likewise suspended on the current of mundane activity and freed from consciousness (until we are jarred back by the unexpected).
Each state is represented by a layer of video. As one comes to the foreground, the other recedes, but both together are needed to illustrate the extremes of our consciousnesses, as well, perhaps, as the connection between them. This format mirrors the essentially temporary nature of transcendent states; life continually requires us to wake up and reassess ourselves.
This piece is about losing myself. But perhaps it will also let you find me.
