smoke signals: portals y paisajes
curated by William Cordova
under the bridge
12425 ne 13th ave
305 987 4437
May20, 2012 – July 08, 2012
“in one case, the out of field designates that which exists elsewhere, to one side or around; in the other case,the out of field testifies to a more disturbing presence, one which cannot even be said to exist, but rather toinsist or subsist, a more radical elsewhere, outside homogeneous space and time”
-Gilles Deleuze (Cinema I: The Movement-Image 1983)
“… nothing stays permanent”
-Hiroshi Sugimoto (interview with Giampaolo Penco: 2007)
smoke signals: portals y paisajes is a project that focuses on the concept of the lens as a portal, frame, window,
an entry point that one can further look through to unlock narratives beyond the limits of a two dimensional plane:
informed, constructed and activated by our own personal experiences… experiences we bring to this two dimensional frame.
The mobility/ immobility of the two-dimensional lens, frame, portal operates as static objects in one hand while penetrating
through the fabric of our own consciousness with implied narratives on the other hand. We as spectators enter these portals,
seeking paisaje or landscape all the time except that we more often run into them through the comfort and familiarity of our
own lens, our own doorway thus further negating any possibility of new discovery or perspectives. These familial experiences
can be altered by permitting ourselves to slow down the way we interpret the landscape…slowing down our visual sensors
in order to comprehend and disseminate the parallels between familiar and distant moments/memory in many cases forgotten
or displaced…juxtaposing known images, sounds and situations with possible foreign ones that slowly create a paradox between
the unfamiliar and familiar…threading, constructing and overlapping multiple narratives fused together to propose alternative
perspectives. Gaining these perspectives can allow for a reconsideration of the known physical and psychological terrain.
Social change only happens when we change our perspective.
“We should distinguish the properties of particulars, and gather by induction what pertains to the eye when visions take place and what is found in the manner of sensations.”
-Ibn Al-Haytham (The Book of Optics: 11th century)